Little Sister
by LiveLaughLove728
Summary: Companion to Nine Months (Please read that first!). A series of one-shots of Percy and Maya together, in no particular order. No set plot, just cute, light-hearted, family fun.
1. Cookies

**Hey guys! So I know it's been _forever _since I posted Nine Months, and just as long since I first started getting requests (and I mean _mass amounts _of requests) about a followup story for it, but I finally got around to starting it. Yay! Better late than never, right? I'm honestly really excited about this!**

**So, if you haven't read my one-shot "Nine Months" yet, please go do that. This story will make a lot more sense if you do.**

**This will just be a compilation of drabble-type things. There will be no real set order or pattern to them, and updates will not be as regular as it is with other stories of mine because there is no actual set plot. Still, I think they will be fun and cute, and they're short, which means I can get them up pretty quickly, as long as I have the inspiration, so ideas are ALWAYS welcome!**

**With that, enjoy! :)**

* * *

_**Percy is almost 19**_

_**Maya is almost 2  
**_

* * *

I slid my key into the front door of my parents' apartment and turned, unlocking the door as I'd done a million times before. I stepped inside, breathing in the familiar scent of clean laundry and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. The smell of home. It made me smile.

Today was the first time I'd been home since the beginning of the summer session at Camp Half-Blood. I'd worked there as a counselor with Annabeth and a handful of others for the past two months. My nineteenth birthday was in just a few days. Summer had, as always, flown by way too fast, but it was good to be home. I'd missed my family. And Annabeth was always close by, which didn't hurt, of course.

"Mom?" I called, as I closed the door behind me and strode further inside, "I'm home." I dropped my backpack in the living room, where it would stay until I could bring it to my room later.

A second later, my mom answered, "In the kitchen, Percy." I made my way through the familiar apartment and to the kitchen, which was warm from the oven, where, sure enough, Mom stood, taking fresh cookies-blue, of course-off of their metal sheet and transferring them to a plate beside it.

"Hey mom," I greeted her, walking over and kissing her on the cheek.

"Hi, honey," she replied, "How was camp?"

"Great," I answered coolly and grabbed a cookie off the plate, almost dropping it when it burnt my hand. The cookie was about a thousand degrees.

My mom chuckled. "They're hot," she warned, a little too late. I grinned at her and took a careful bite.

"Where's-" I began to ask, but was cut off by the front door opening again and familiar voices filling the apartment and coming toward the kitchen, answering my question for her.

I finished my cookie and turned expectantly toward the kitchen entrance in time to hear, "PER-CEEEE!" and for a little bundle of brown hair to fly into me, hugging my legs.

"Hey, Maya!" I said, smiling as I bent down to my little sister's level. She wrapped her arms tightly around my neck and held on, her smile huge.

"When you get here?" She demanded adorably, letting go and looking at me with big blue eyes.

"A few minutes ago!" I answered, smiling widely myself and matching her enthusiasm.

Maya just smiled impossibly wider. "Yay!" she exclaimed, "Missed you!" She jumped up and down a few times, like she simply couldn't contain herself, and then hooked her arms around my neck again. "Up!" she cried. I wrapped my arms around her and stood, lifting her up with me. She squealed in utter zeal, as if I'd just made her week. I probably had. I loved this age.

Our parents were looking at us, smiling. Paul stood, leaning in the doorway. His smirk widened and he nodded a greeting when I looked at him. "How was camp?" he asked casually.

"Really good," I answered.

Maya saw the cookies on the counter then and, not allowing for any further conversation between us, began eagerly drumming on my shoulder with one hand and pointing enthusiastically with the other. "Cookie!" she said, "Cookie, Per-cee!"

"You want a cookie?" I laughed, already crossing the few steps to get her one.

"Yeah!" I took a cookie off the top of the pile, checking to make sure it had cooled off enough for her to eat.

"What do you say, Maya?" Mom asked her, just before I brought it into her reach. I waited for my baby sister's response, for my mom's benefit. I really didn't care if she used manners or not. She was way cute enough to get away without them.

"Pwease," Maya answered obediently.

"That's right," my mom commended her. Still smiling, I handed Maya the cookie, with which, she wasted no time at all making a mess with, covering her hands, face, and _me_ with the gooey chocolate. Laughing as I watched her, I took another for myself.

She finished it surprisingly fast and wanted more. "Have 'nother one?"

"Okay," Mom said after a pause, "But only one more," and placed another in the baby's hands. She stayed next to me, her hand resting gently on my back as we all watched the almost-two year old.

Just before she brought the cookie to her mouth, Maya froze and looked at me. "'Wub you, Per-cee," she said, and then resumed her cookie-eating, seeming satisfied.

I smiled again, and then gave a laugh. "I love you too, Maya."

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**Thank you for reading! More to come soon! Ideas are always welcome!  
**

**Review!**


	2. Sick

**Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all the reviews and follows/favorites from the first chapter! I really appreciate it!  
**

**I had a lot of fun writing this. Hopefully it's as cute as I was trying for! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Percy is 18.  
_

_Maya is 1._

* * *

"Thank gods," I sighed aloud in relief as I wrote in the last answer to the math homework I'd been slowly working my way through for the past hour and closed the book in front of me. I leaned forward in my chair and rested my elbows on top of the small desk, rubbing my throbbing temples, as if I could massage the headache-a side effect of doing algebra with dyslexia-away. The joys of being a half-blood…

After a minute or so of doing that with minimal relief, I sighed and stood to leave my room. I stopped in the kitchen, intending to reward myself for the hour of hard work with one of the cookies sitting on the plate on the counter. I stood there for a minute, chewing, while the pounding in my forehead numbed some more.

The apartment was quiet. I could hear my mom's voice, muffled through the walls, coming from the other end of the apartment, probably the living room, and surely directed at Maya, as Paul, who had spent the day in Brooklyn, at a mandatory teaching workshop, probably wouldn't be home for another few hours. If it hadn't been so cold out, I might have considered going outside, maybe meeting Annabeth in Central Park or something.

My little sister's miserable whimper had me leaving the kitchen and heading toward my mom's voice though, stuffing the remainder of the cookie in my mouth in the process, both out of curiosity and slight concern.

I'd been right about the living room. My mom was crouched down in front of the couch when I walked in, my baby sister sprawled out on the cushions in front of her. She was trying to coax the toddler into doing something, but Maya was having none of it, squirming and whimpering, being difficult.

"What's wrong, Maya?" I asked her as I entered the room and leaning across the arm of the couch. She'd been napping when I'd gotten home from school. This was the first time I'd seen her today.

"She woke up a few minutes ago with a fever," my mom explained, "No wonder she slept so long." Looking at my little sister, it wasn't hard to see that Mom was right. Her face was flushed and her eyes looked really red, even with her having recently been asleep. I'd learned enough first aid from my years at camp to recognize a fever when I saw one. It also explained her crankiness.

"How bad?" I asked.

"100. I'm trying to give her some Motrin." She held up the small plunger of medicine in her hand, which I hadn't noticed before.

I turned toward my baby sister again. "You don't feel good, Buggie?" I'd called her 'Buggie' since the day she'd come home from the hospital. My mom had put her in a pink dress with black polka dots for the occasion, which, for some reason, had reminded me of a ladybug. I'd gotten to hold her while my parents had packed everything up to leave the hospital and upon picking her up, I'd said, "Come here, Buggie." It had been my name for her ever since. My mom thought it was just about the cutest thing ever and didn't let me forget it, but I really didn't mind. I'll be the first to admit it: I love my baby sister to pieces.

Maya just looked up at me, pouting, her little lower lip jutting out, like she wanted to cry. Refusing the medicine in her mother's hand once more, she reached her arms out to me. "Per-ee," she whimpered miserably.

My mom looked at me, but I had already stood and moved toward her, reaching to pick her up. She definitely was abnormally warm. She curled into me and I sat down with her on my lap. Mom brought the medicine plunger to her mouth again, now that she was still, and she accepted the medicine almost easily, making only a face as she did so. I couldn't blame her. From what I remembered, liquid Motrin was absolutely disgusting.

My mom sat back on her heals, looking relieved to have finally gotten the stuff into her daughter. She smiled at me. I grinned back. "I'm going to get you a brother of the year award," she informed me. I nonchalantly shrugged the shoulder Maya wasn't lying on, like that would be just fine with me. My mom chuckled and turned to put the cap back on the bottle of baby Motrin, which sat on the coffee table behind her. "Homework done?" she asked as she stood up.

"Yup," I answered. My tone apparently betrayed my feelings toward the subject, because my mom laughed again.

"Good," she replied and left to return the medicine to the kitchen.

I sat in the quiet living room with my sister, absently stroking the soft brown hair on her head and leaned my head back against the couch, eyes closed.

I opened them again when my mom returned a few minutes later and sat down beside me, this time with a sippy cup in her hand, filled with what I assumed was water, based on the few times I'd had a fever myself over the years. Something about the godly blood in me kept me healthier than normal kids, though I had gotten a temperature every once in a while, and every time I did, my mom pushed more water on me then could probably have fit in my body at the time, insisting on "keeping me hydrated," though, knowing what I know now, it was possible that had been for a slightly different reason.

Maya was completely human though, and to her, water possessed no special healing capabilities other than to keep her hydrated while she was sick-surely my mom's thinking, though she abandoned the idea pretty quickly when she realized, as I did, that the toddler was already asleep against my chest. Mom made a slight face, but set the cup on the coffee table in front of us in defeat.

"Dare I try to put her back in her crib?" she asked.

I glanced down at Maya's small, sleeping form. "You can try, but you probably won't get far without her waking up." I nodded toward her hands, which were twisted in my T-shirt, holding on as if for dear life. My mom looked back at me, but I continued before she did could say anything in response. "It's okay, I can stay here. I don't have anything important to do."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," I said easily, "It's fine."

My mom smirked and stood back up. "Okay. I'm going to start on dinner then. If she wakes up, see if you can get her to drink some of that, will you?" She gestured to the cup.

"Sure thing."

"Thank you, Percy."

"No problem." My mom left the room once more, and I turned on the TV and settled in to watch with my baby sister sleeping in my lap.

And only when my mom came to get me for dinner, did I realize that I'd fallen asleep as well.

* * *

**Maya's wrapped around Percy's finger isn't she? Such a good big brother... :)**

**So I was thinking of maybe doing the hospital scene I mentioned in this update as a separate one in the future as well. Would that be a good idea? Let me know!**

**Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it! See you next time!**


	3. Babysitting

**Hey guys! So I got a ton of requests for something like this and I had SO much fun writing this. I hope you have fun reading it as well!**

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**_Percy is 17._  
**

**_Maya is 6 months._**

* * *

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" My mom asked me for the millionth time as she finally grabbed her things to leave, still juggling Maya in one arm, "We don't have to go."

"Yes, we do," Paul said as he walked into the living room.

"Yes, you do," I echoed, "I'll be fine, Mom." It was a Saturday night and she and Paul had planned to go out together alone for the first time since Maya's birth, over six months ago. My mom was excited to go, but nervous about leaving the baby for the first time. She'd originally planned to hire someone to watch her, but I'd volunteered instead, which had obviously made my mom a little less nervous (at least she wouldn't be leaving her baby with a virtual stranger), though she still had been, and was, slightly reluctant to leave us.

"Are you sure?" she pressed. She wasn't usually this worried, but I guess it had been a while since she'd had a baby to worry about. She'd had to get used to it all over again, and still was.

"Yeah, totally sure. Right Maya?" Recognizing her name, my sister turned in our mother's arms toward me. I held my arms out to her and she came easily, which only helped my cause.

"Come on, Sally," Paul contributed, "You need to get out. They'll be fine."

With a small sigh, my mom conceded at last, "Alright. Just remember, I've left bottles for her in the fridge. You'll have to w-"

"Warm them up before I give them to her. I know, Mom," I said, not disrespectfully. "Don't worry, I've got this. Maya and I will have a lot of fun. You just go and enjoy yourselves."

With one last sigh, my mom smiled. "Okay." Slinging her purse onto her shoulder, she stepped forward and kissed Maya's cheek, and then my own. "Thank you." I just grinned at her.

"Bye, Percy," Paul said as my mom joined him in the entryway, "Thanks a lot."

"No problem, bye, Paul." With that, my parents finally made their way out the door, leaving me alone with my six-month old sister.

Of course, the second they were gone, Maya started squirming, unhappy with having seen her parents leave. "Hey," I said animatedly, bouncing her lightly in my arms the way my mom did. "It's okay. Come on." I carried her to her room and pulled out one of her colorful toys, sitting her down in front of it and turning it on. It was basically this little colorful machine that shot plastic balls up through this tube to a funnel thing, which fed into a tiny colorful slide that the balls rolled down. And it just repeated over and over again. Maya loved it, always trying to catch the balls as they came down. Personally, I thought it was pretty cool too. Needless to say, the baby was successfully distracted and entertained.

I sat next to her, keeping her from falling backward as she sat, and laughing at the faces she made as she tried to grab the colorful balls as they rolled by. Every time I did this, she would look up at me and laugh too, showing off the tiny little tooth she'd acquired the month before. It was really adorable.

At six months old though, Maya had an even shorter attention span than I did. After a few minutes, apparently losing interest in the ball popper, Maya rolled backward and rolled over onto her stomach, propping herself up on her arms and craning her neck to look up at me, a huge toothless smile on her face. "Hi," I laughed. She smiled even wider, babbling cutely. She wasn't quite crawling yet, though, according to Mom, she would be learning to pretty soon. For now, she was stuck in one place, which, honestly, I was kind of grateful for. It made my job easier.

There was a knock at the door then, barely audible from where we were in the baby's room, but a knock nonetheless. "Somebody's here, Buggie," I said with an exaggerated gasp, which made my sister smile again. "Let's go see," I scooped her up with me as I stood.

A random knock on my apartment door usually meant one of two things: it was either a lost delivery guy (it had happened more than once) or my girlfriend, as monsters tended not to knock. Ever.

I shifted Maya to one arm and opened the door with the other, to reveal Annabeth standing in the entrance. She raised her eyebrows amusedly, looking at me holding the baby. "Got your hands full?" she asked by way of greeting.

I smirked, stepping aside to let her in. "Nah. Maya's pretty easy." It wasn't uncommon for Annabeth to show up at our apartment unannounced now that she lived in the city, just a few blocks away, staying in the city to attend Goode, as well as be near camp and me. I really had no life outside of school, camp, and her, so it was a pretty safe bet that if she was free, so was I. My parents wouldn't be surprised for a second to find her over upon their return.

"Is that true, Maya?" Annabeth asked, her voice light as she spoke to the baby, a smile lighting up her already beautiful face. Maya smiled at her in return and wiggled excitedly in my arms. Annabeth held her arms out to her and, without really waiting for permission from either Maya or me, took her from me. I watched as she played with her, lifting her above her head and twisting her back and forth, laughing as she laughed.

I loved watching Annabeth with Maya. She was so good with her, with kids in general, though she would never admit it. They adored each other.

We sat on the couch. Annabeth stood Maya up on her lap and bounced her up and down. This was one of Maya's favorite games, and she laughed as she went, making us laugh with her.

After a few minutes, Annabeth sat her down again, giving them both a break. I turned the TV on, but the only one who really watched it was Maya. She watched the screen with wide, curious eyes, though she undoubtedly didn't know what she was looking at. Annabeth and I mostly watched her.

She started squirming and whimpering after a while, like she was going to start crying. Annabeth shamelessly handed her off to me. Maya quieted slightly for a few seconds, before starting up again. I held her against my chest, trying to calm her, but it wasn't really working. "What's the matter?" I asked. I glanced at the time displayed on the cable box. It had been a while since she'd last eaten. "You hungry, Buggie? Is that the problem?" I stood with her, catching sight of Annabeth's smile as I walked from the living room to the kitchen. She followed after a second and sat in a chair, watching as I took one of the bottles from the refrigerator and put it in the warmer. Having seen her food but not received it, Maya cried louder, impatient. I stood at the counter, bouncing her and gently shushing her as I waited for her milk to warm up.

It was only lukewarm when I took it out, but Maya didn't care. She held it on her own, sucking on it, all pretense of how unhappy she'd been only moments before gone. I cradled her in my arms, laying her back so she could more easily eat, and joined Annabeth at the table. She watched me with Maya, a small smirk on her face. I raised my eyebrows expectantly. "Yes?"

She only smiled wider and shook her head, looking away for a second and meeting my eyes again. "Nothing," she answered lightly.

I grinned. "Admit it. I am _fantastic _at this."

"Alright, Seaweed Brain, you're very good at this."

"Just 'good,' huh?"

"Yes." Her answer was sarcastic, but her smile was genuine.

I gave a single nod, "Oh. Okay." Annabeth laughed.

With Maya content and enjoying her dinner, I decided it was high time for us to have some of our own. I stood up and handed Maya to Annabeth, who took her easily, but looked slightly confused. "What are you doing?"

Walking toward the cabinet, I answered, "Making dinner." I pulled out a box of macaroni and cheese and held it up for her to see, "Want some?"

She was clearly entertained at my choice. I could cook halfway decently when I wanted to, and she knew it. Doing so just required more effort than I wanted to put forth at the moment. She shrugged and then nodded.

We talked while I got to work on dinner and she finished feeding Maya. When the bottle was empty, she took it from her and placed it on the table, and then sat her up. The baby sat on her lap, kicking her feet happily against the tops of Annabeth's knees, content, if not a little on the tired side. I glanced at the stove clock. It was after seven. My mom usually put Maya to bed around eight. She'd probably fall asleep soon.

After another few minutes, the mac 'n' cheese was almost done, and Annabeth was in the middle of telling me (and complaining) about the huge research paper she had due on Monday.

"That's what you get for taking AP," I informed her smugly. She made a face at me, but couldn't really argue. Maya had, at this point, gone still and her eyes were beginning to close as she leaned back against Annabeth. The latter noticed this as well. She stood and crossed the small kitchen with her to me.

"Here. Go get her ready for bed, Mr. Babysitter. I'll finish dinner."

I smiled, "Okay," and proceeded to take the tired baby from her.

I carried Maya to her room, changed her diaper, put her in pajamas, and wrapped her loosely in a blanket the way my mom did when she was putting her to sleep, before carrying her back to the kitchen, where Annabeth was stirring the cheese into the macaroni. "She looks so tired," she noted, looking at my sister, who rested her head on my shoulder as I held her.

I followed her gaze and smirked. "She'll be dead to the world soon."

"You're really good with her, you know," Annabeth said as she took out two bowls to spoon the macaroni into.

I smiled. "Is that surprising?"

She smiled back. "Nothing about you surprises me anymore, Seaweed Brain. You're just adorable with her."

Maya fell asleep on me as I ate, and after we finished, I put her in her crib and joined Annabeth on the couch in the living room, and I decided that I could definitely do this again.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**So the toy mentioned in the story was actually one that belonged to both my brothers as babies, and it was seriously the coolest baby toy ever. Percy would definitely think so too. :)**

**Anyway, your thoughts and ideas are always appreciated! Thanks again!**


	4. Video Games

**So I realized that I haven't updated in a while, so this is just a little something I whipped up. Thought you might like it. :)**

* * *

_Percy is 25._

_Maya is 8._

* * *

Maya laughed as the red shell she'd thrown at me found its mark and flipped me over, allowing her and three other cars to pass me. "Really? You evil little-" I hit the gas button again and watched as Luigi took off, racing to catch up with the other cars that had formerly been behind me.

"Ha ha! I'm winning now!" she yelled back, smiling hugely.

We were playing Mario Kart. I was Luigi. Maya was Princess Peach. And she was giving me a run for my money. I was on the verge of getting my butt whooped by my little sister, who, frankly, was way too good at this game for her age.

"Not for long!" I taunted, surpassing one of the four characters ahead of me and scoring a power-up. Figures, it would be something useless. But banana peels were better than nothing at all.

"Last lap!" Maya yelled, "You'd better hurry!"

"What's going on in here?" My mom asked, laughing, as she walked into the living room, Annabeth following behind her.

"I'm kicking Percy's butt!" Maya announced proudly.

"Ooh," Annabeth said, coming to stand next to where I sat on the floor, "Getting beaten by an eight-year old. That's rough." I didn't have to look at her to know she was greatly amused.

We were over for dinner. Before we'd gotten married, Maya had made us promise to visit often-as if my mom would let us do anything _but_ that, and held us to the standard of stopping by at least once a week, though even that was pushing it for her. Maya had gotten the game the week before for her birthday, and had insisted on playing it the second I was through the door.

"It's not over yet." Truthfully, I didn't mind letting Maya win. The key word, of course, was _letting. _I grabbed another power-up, one that was actually helpful this time, and blew through the final two cars, leaving me right behind Peach, but it was too little, too late. She crossed the finish line first.

"Ha!" Maya got to her feet, exuberant in her victory, "I win, I win!"

I just looked at her and raised my eyebrows. "How do you know I didn't let you win?" She looked completely crushed for a second, her mouth falling open in an adorable "O." She clearly hadn't considered that at all. I laughed. "I'm kidding, Buggie. Seriously, how are you so good at this game?"

"She hasn't stopped playing it since she got it, that's how," my mom put in, her tone slightly chiding as she left the room again, probably to check on dinner. Maya just grinned at me.

"Home field advantage," I said.

"Huh?" Maya asked.

"It means you have a better chance of winning because the game belongs to you," Annabeth supplied, sitting down on the floor beside me, and looked from her to me, raising her eyebrows. "You know, there's a perfectly good couch not five feet from you, and yet you're on the floor…?"

I shrugged. "Maya wanted the floor."

Annabeth smiled and then shook her head. "I can't believe she just beat you." She offered her hand to Maya for a high five.

"Yeah, well. Sorry. I didn't exactly have time for video games as a kid."

"You don't say."

"Yeah, you know," I said with a dismissive wave of my hand, "I had better things to do."

Maya, growing bored with our bickering, eagerly piped up, already pushing buttons. "Wanna race again?"

I chuckled and picked up the controller once more. "Alright." And this time, I won.

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**Thanks for reading!  
**


	5. Ladybug

**Hey guys! I know its been forever since I've updated last. 5 words: High School. Advanced Placement. Chaos. Sorry about that... Things are still going to be pretty crazy for me these next few weeks, but I promise I will try to write some more. I have a whole bunch of PJO works in progress that I have been meaning to finish for you guys for a while. I will try harder. I promise.**

**Anyway, this is just a cute little idea that I wanted to write for you. I mentioned it a few updates back and I finally got around to writing it. Here's how Maya got her nickname. :)**

**Hope you like it!**

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**Percy is 17.**

**Maya is 2 days old.**

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Hospital rooms were boring. Everything was white: the walls, the floor, the sheets on the bed. It was too white. Definitely boring. This, oddly enough, was what ran through my mind as I stood in said hospital room, staring out the window at the city streets below.

I'd spent almost every minute of the last two days here, since I'd seen my family for the first time in nine months, after literally going through Hell, and yet, I didn't want to be anywhere else. My mom was here, and Paul. And so was my baby sister.

_My sister._ Those words still seemed so strange to think. I had a sibling; a sister. I was a big brother. It was hard to believe, but it was also super awesome.

The baby was currently in her little, plastic hospital crib. My mom had put her in there after she had fallen asleep so she and Paul could finish getting things ready to go home. This had meant about five minutes of packing and about half an hour of the two of them sitting on the bed, going over a stack of legal papers a bit too thick for my liking and filling all of them out, which was what they were doing now, murmuring to each other about legal names and birth certificates. Apparently having a baby required quite a lot of paperwork. Who knew?

This, of course, left me with nothing to do but stand around, waiting. I didn't have to stay-they'd already told me as much, but I had gone nine months without seeing my parents. After everything that had happened during that time-how many times I'd almost died, I really didn't mind staying. And I knew my mom would rather have me here, so that was that. I would leave when she left.

Besides, it was either that or go back to the apartment by myself. And I didn't really want to do that. It was a nice day out: sunny, blue sky, typical Manhattan traffic damming the streets below. It was a comforting sight. Especially after the time Annabeth and I had spent in Tartarus, wondering if we'd live to see the light of day again. That had been a living nightmare.

But we had survived. And I'd come home to another dream; this time a much more pleasant one. I still wasn't completely convinced that I wasn't going to wake up still on the Argo II or something.

The sound of newborn whimpering broke me out of my thoughts and I turned from the window toward the little crib where Maya was-or had been-sleeping.

She wasn't sleeping anymore. Her light blue eyes were open and taking in the room around her. She wasn't quite crying yet, but it still looked like a good possibility. I closed the distance between the cradle and where I stood in a few steps, feeling my-our-parents' eyes on me as I did so.

The baby's breathy whimpers quieted once she saw me. "Hey," I said softly, smiling down at her, and gave her my finger, which she grabbed and held on to, "It's okay." I could practically feel my mom's smile directed at the two of us before she and Paul turned their attention back to the papers between them.

Maya, fully awake now, stared up at me with wide eyes, kicking her feet free of the confines of the blanket she was loosely wrapped in. My mom had dressed her up in a pink dress with black polka dots, which, for whatever reason, reminded me of a ladybug. Tufts of brown hair poked out the bottom of her matching pink hat.

I laughed at the faces she was making, opening and closing her mouth like a fish in slow motion. She really was adorable.

Apparently simply having me within sight wasn't enough though. It wasn't long before she began whimpering again and eventually, despite my best efforts to appease her, began crying.

Straightening, I looked from my unhappy baby sister to my mom, who still sat where she was, but had looked up from the legal forms and was watching me. The look on my face probably plainly read: _Help me_, though my mom made no obvious effort to move. "Pick her up, Percy," she said instead, kindly, "She probably just wants to be held."

I looked back at Maya, who was still crying, looking up at me with those heartbreaking eyes. I didn't have much experience with kids, especially babies, but this was my little sister who already had me wrapped around her little fingers. What was a helpless big brother to do?

I leaned over her again and made to lift her from the crib, sighing, "C'mere, Buggie." I don't know where it came from; except that I had been thinking about her ladybug outfit earlier and it just came out. And it didn't sound half-bad either. I could feel my mom grinning at me again.

The second I had Maya in my arms, the crying stopped immediately, which made me feel better. I was still so unsure about this but the wave of anxiety that I'd felt a moment before vanished just as quickly as it came, and it was just Maya, my baby sister, fitting comfortably in my arms and looking up at me with eyes identical to our mother's.

And for the first time, it felt completely right.

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**Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it!**

**And real quick, before you go, I was thinking about possibly doing a PJO story, probably from Annabeth's POV, of what happens after BoO, because I, for one, was very disappointed with how that ended. Thoughts? What do you think? And ideas would be super helpful too! Let me know!**


	6. Ocean

**Hey everyone. I know it's been a few months since I last posted a chapter. I didn't plan on updating very regularly with this because it doesn't have a specific plot or anything, but that _is_ a bit too long... Sorry. I started this chapter a very long time ago and actually forgot about it, but it is done now and that's what counts and I will, for the rest of the summer at least, be updating more frequently.**

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Percy is 23.

Maya is 6.

* * *

"Mommy, come _on_!" Maya whined impatiently as she stood by the door, waiting as my mom continued gathering the necessities for a day on the beach. We were in Montauk: my parents, Maya, Annabeth, and I, in the same cabin I'd grown up going to. It was pretty crammed now, with five people-four of them, adults-staying in it, but there was no way we'd ever stay anywhere else.

"Hold on, Maya," my mom replied, stuffing towels into a tote bag, "We'll go in a minute."

Maya, clearly not happy with that answer but deciding not to press the issue for the moment, just pouted adorably, crossing her arms and doing her best to look annoyed at the hold up we were causing her.

We'd arrived the night before, having left the city after Annabeth and I had gotten out of work for the week, and all Maya had talked about since the car had left my parents' apartment was the beach. She couldn't wait to get in the water-a little girl after my own heart, and was unhappy that she'd not only had to wait all day yesterday, but also this morning for breakfast to be served, and then for everyone to get ready. She'd been revving to go right from the start, appearing from my parents' bedroom, where she slept, just barely after 8am, dressed in her frilly pink bathing suit and purple flip flops, while the rest of us had still been sipping coffee and blinking the sleep out of our eyes in our pajamas.

I couldn't fault my sister for her enthusiasm either. I was excited too.

I stood next to her now, finishing the bagel that was my breakfast, exactly half an hour since she'd first begun asking to go. For the moment, everyone else was busy, getting themselves ready or gathering necessities for the day. Our cabin was mere feet from the beach, but my mom liked to have everything we'd need with us ahead of time so we wouldn't have to track sand and water in getting it later. It was a pretty tedious process that had annoyed me as well when I was young and impatient.

It annoyed me now that I was older and impatient too, but I understood why she did it now, at least.

I'd gotten the folding beach chairs and the umbrella out of the trunk of Paul's Prius and brought them in, per Mom's orders, a few minutes ago. They now leaned against the wall on the other side of Maya, waiting, as she did, to go out to the beach. My work was done and everything else seemed pretty under control so I decided the cabin was crowded enough and to just stay out of the way until it was time to go.

"Is a minute up yet?" my sister asked from beside me. Despite myself, I couldn't keep from smiling.

"Honey, please be patient," My mom answered as Annabeth appeared, carrying the sunscreen the former had asked her to find, and put it in the bag, "We'll go as soon as we finish packing everything and Daddy comes out." Paul, who had been the last one to gain access to the bathroom that morning, was still getting ready.

Maya sighed and looked away, out the window that faced the sea. Then, she seemed to get an idea and turned to look at me as I finished chewing the last of my bagel, her eyes lighting up. "Can Percy take me?" she asked, looking back at our mother, "He's ready!"

My mom glanced over at Maya and then at me, looking resigned. "Do you mind?" she asked me.

"'Course not," I shrugged, "As long as you don't need any more help in here?"

"No, we're good, I think. We're just about done."

"Okay," I said.

"Yay!" Maya yelled in excitement, moving to open the door.

"Maya, stay with your brother," my mom instructed and, looking at me, said, "We'll meet you out there in a few minutes." And then, with a glint in her eye, she asked, "Think you can keep her safe in the water until then?"

I grinned, looking over my shoulder now as I moved to follow Maya out the door. Mock seriously, I answered, "Yeah, I think I can manage that." The last thing I saw before my sister pulled the door shut was Annabeth, rolling her eyes and smiling, as she handed my mom various items to put in the bag.

The moment the door was shut, Maya, smiling excitedly, took my hand in hers, exclaimed, "Come on, Percy!" and began pulling me toward the ocean. I let her lead me, amused, but totally approving, of her enthusiasm.

The morning sun was high over the water, heating the beach and the sand beneath our feet. It was still fairly early so it wasn't blisteringly hot yet, but it was late July; we wouldn't have to wait long.

There was no one else around yet, which was unsurprising as it wasn't even 9am yet and it was a fairly secluded part of the beach normally, so I let go of Maya's hand and trotted after her as she raced toward the surf. She splashed into the waves up to just below her knees and stopped, seeming hesitant to go in further. I followed her in, feeling the rush of familiar power that the ocean sent through my body, and stood beside her. "C'mon, Buggie," I said, taking half a step further and looking down at her, "Don't you want to go in?"

Maya looked up at me, all traces of her former enthusiasm gone and replaced with apprehension as she eyed the vastness of the ocean before us. She shook her head. For a split second, I felt slightly disappointed at her change in demeanor, but then again, I supposed it was probably pretty normal for any child that didn't have the sea in their blood to be frightened of it now that she was actually face to face with it. The ocean, as I knew better than most, was a powerful thing. It made sense.

It was also probably important to note that this was Maya's first real experience at the beach that she was really old enough to clearly remember. We'd been to Montauk almost every year since she'd been born-she would grow up remembering visits here, just like I did. But last year, between my wedding and my mom's first book being published, we'd just not had the chance to go and she'd been pretty young before that.

But I didn't want her to be scared. Not of the ocean.

"What if I carry you? Will you go in then?" I asked gently. Maya seemed to consider it for a second before she looked up at me with trust in her big blue eyes and nodded. I smiled and lifted her easily. I held her against me as I waded slowly through the water, the waves parting easily around me. Maya clung to me, but seemed okay with it.

I stopped when the water reached to just below my waist. _Little waves,_ I thought at the ocean, _Little, gentle waves._ The water, as always, responded to my wishes and crashed softly against Maya as I held her. "There," I said to her, "That's all. Not so bad, right?" She nodded but said nothing.

After about a minute of this, her grip around my neck loosened and she put a hand tentatively in the water, the smallest of smiles appearing on her face, and I knew she was growing more comfortable.

I steadily allowed the waves to become normal again and moved to shield my sister from the impact, but that pretty quickly became unnecessary. As another wave crested and broke against my back, spraying her, she started laughing. And after another minute and a few more waves, she was hardly holding on to me at all and was having a blast.

"Put me down," she said, "I wanna stand."

"Okay," I complied and waded with her to shallower water, where she would easily be able to stand on her own. I set her down in waist-high (for her) water just after another wave crashed by. She held onto my hand but paid me little attention otherwise as the next one came by and she jumped into and through it. I laughed.

"Hey, Maya," I said, reaching down in between swells to pick up the white seashell that had washed up in the sand by her feet and held it up to her. It wasn't anything special, just one of the hundreds of plain, old clamshells that washed up along the east coast shores every day, but Maya loved it. She gasped and reached out for it, taking it tentatively from me, as if it were a precious stone.

She smiled and looked up at me. "Can I keep it?"

I shrugged. "Sure. Just go put it on the beach so it get washed away." That was all she needed to hear. Letting go of my hand, she turned and headed for the shore, holding her newfound treasure safely above the water. I followed after her, just in case, but she had no problem navigating the waves and was on the sand in no time.

She set the shell in the sand a good ways out of the water's reach and then came thundering back towards where I was waiting for her, still ankle-deep in water. We waded back out to where we'd been before, Maya, this time happy to go herself, without any help from me, and commenced jumping through the waves again.

And a minute later, when my parents and Annabeth appeared, they found us doing exactly that, and Maya, happy as a clam.

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**Yes, pun is intended on that last line. :)**

**Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it!**


	7. Car Ride

**Hey guys! Thanks for all the reviews for this story. Glad you all are enjoying it. :)**

* * *

**Percy is 28.**

**Maya is 11.**

* * *

The parking lot of Franklin Junior High was crowded with the hundreds of parents picking up their kids at the end of the school day and, quite honestly, all the traffic was getting on my nerves. Even after all the years I'd lived in New York, it still annoyed me.

It was a Friday afternoon. Mom and Paul had gone away for the weekend, having left that morning, and Maya was staying with me, Annabeth, and our son while they were gone. I was picking her up from school to bring her to our apartment.

I'd only been waiting for a few minutes but it was a nice April day and waiting wasn't a strong point of mine anyway, so I'd gotten out and stood, leaning against the side of my car and tapping Riptide restlessly against my leg. It didn't seem to matter how old I got. I was still terrible at sitting still…

The final bell rang; sounding through the building and into the parking lot, and not a minute later, a flood of middle schoolers began pouring steadily out the double doors in the front of the building. It took a few minutes before Maya appeared, her backpack slung over her shoulders, making her way through the sea of students.

I knew the moment she saw me; her eyes widened, her face broke into a dazzling smile, and she picked up the pace, her brown ponytail swinging back and forth as she half-ran through the throng of kids.

I should probably mention: she didn't know I was coming.

In a normal situation, a little sister would probably never, in a million years, be as excited to see her brother as Maya was to see me, but then, ours wasn't exactly a "normal" situation.

Almost against my will, I found myself grinning widely, watching her, and I stepped away from the car in her direction. It had been way too long since I'd seen her. Work, and Annabeth, and the kids just kept me so busy. I didn't get to see my sister as much as either of us would have liked anymore.

She ran the last few steps and jumped into my waiting arms. "Percy! What are you doing here?"

"I'm picking you up from school, what does it look like?"

She stood, regarding me. The gears were clearly turning, but the smile never left her face. "Where's mom?"

"New Jersey," I answered, "She and Dad are going away for the weekend."

Confusion flashed across her face. "So then, where am I supposed to go?" I just smiled wider. She continued staring at me, waiting, until realization lit up her features. Her eyes widened again and her smile grew impossibly big. "I'm staying with you?" she asked excitedly, "All weekend?"

"Well, yeah, as long as you don't mind sleeping on the couch. I mean, you don't really have a choice at this point, but…" I grinned. She squealed and hugged me again. It really had been too long. "C'mon," I said, opening the car door for her, "Let's get out of here." She climbed in and I closed her door before getting in myself.

"Where's Annabeth?" Maya asked as I got in behind the wheel, "And Noah?"

"They're at home, waiting for you. For now, you're stuck with me, kiddo."

"Well, that's boring," she said, mocking disappointment.

"I'll give you boring," I told her and she laughed, trying-and failing-to wrestle her backpack into the backseat as I shut my door. Amused, I reached over and helped her before starting the car and pulling out into the chaos that was Manhattan streets.

"So how was school?" I asked, "Learn anything cool?"

"It was fine," she answered, shrugging, "Um, well in social studies, we're learning about ancient civilizations and stuff. That's pretty interesting. We're covering Ancient Greece right now." That got my attention. "Today, we were learning about their myths; their gods and stuff. Like Zeus and Apollo and Hercules."

I stopped at a red light and nodded. "Yeah, I've heard of them," I told her evenly.

She nodded, happy with that answer. "So, yeah, that's pretty cool, I guess." I suppose, being the daughter of Sally and Paul Blofis, Maya _would _have an interest in Greek mythology, of all things.

"Do you have homework?" I asked her as the light changed and I accelerated again. Mom would kill me if I let her get away with not doing it.

She made a face. "Yeah. Math." She sounded distinctly unenthusiastic. She looked at me, "Do you think Annabeth can help me with ratios?"

I smirked, "I'm sure she can, yeah."

"You can't," she said, smirking. It wasn't a question.

"Nope. And you don't want me to try, trust me." Maya laughed.

"Didn't you have to do math in school?" she asked, "How did you pass?"

"Annabeth helped me too," I admitted, smirking.

"How old were you again? When you met her?"

I smiled, stopping at yet another red light. "Twelve."

Maya beamed, "I'm almost twelve."

I glanced at her. "Well, she wasn't my girlfriend back then."

"But she was your best friend, right?"

I chuckled, "Not at first. She kind of hated my guts at first, actually. You can ask her. She'll tell you."

That was news to Maya. She blinked. "Really?" I nodded. "So when did you become friends then?"

"Well she didn't hate me for that long. Only for, like, a month. And then we became friends. It's a long story."

"So how old were you became her boyfriend?"

"Sixteen."

"That's before I was born." She sounded pretty impressed.

"Yup."

"And you've been together ever since?"

"Well that's another long story. I'll tell you sometime," I said, "But yeah."

"That's cool." Maya, smiling, looked thoughtful as I turned into our neighborhood. "I want to have a love story like that someday," she said after a minute.

"Someday, Buggie," I replied. Emphasis on _someday._

She made a face at me, the same face she always made whenever I called her that lately, which was partly why I still did it. But she said, "'Cause you'll beat up any boy who isn't good?" It wasn't much of a question.

"Exactly," I answered, trying not to smile. Maya did smile.

We were at our apartment by now. I had barely put the car in park before she was opening the door and climbing out. "Come on!" she told me when I apparently didn't move fast enough in retrieving her backpack from the backseat and slinging it over my shoulder.

"I'm coming, Buggie. Chill," I said, smirking, as I locked the car and walked to where she'd stopped, ten feet from it, and was waiting for me. She rolled her eyes at me, a distinctly _Annabeth_-ish gesture, but smiled and turned to follow me inside to where the rest of my family was waiting for us.

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**Thanks for reading!**


	8. Aunt Maya

**Hey everyone!**

**So, I... kinda hate this honestly. I like the idea, but no matter what I do, I can't seem to get it written quite right, but it seemed a waste to have written the whole thing out only to not use it, so here it is. Hopefully you like it.**

* * *

**_Percy is 24._**

**_Maya is 7._**

* * *

The excitement was almost tangible as we sat in my parents' living room, waiting for Maya to come home from school. I sat next to Annabeth on the couch, my arm around her. Paul had left the room for the moment, but I had a feeling he was still pretty close by. He wanted to see his daughter's reaction to our news just as much as we did. My mom had left a few minutes earlier to pick her up at the bus stop.

We had given the two of them the news a little while earlier, just after Paul had arrived home from work. They were ecstatic, though we'd expected nothing less.

Paul came back into view, video camera in hand, just as the front door opened, admitting my mom and sister. I unhooked my arm from around Annabeth and stood up, smiling, in anticipation of the onslaught that was coming. The door had just barely closed again before Maya came barreling down the hallway and into the living room, yelling, "Percy!" She jumped into my arms, giggling.

"Hey!" I said, laughing with her. My mom appeared then, smiling widely, as everyone in the room was, and carrying Maya's pink backpack, which the first grader had left disregarded on the floor in her haste to greet us.

I set Maya on her feet again and she moved to give Annabeth, who was also standing now, and Paul a hug hello. "Why are you here?" she asked us, her blue eyes full of excitement and curiosity, once hellos were finished being exchanged.

"We came to see you, Buggie," I told her informatively.

"Why?"

"Cause we wanted to see you," I told her, smiling, "Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah," Maya said, like that was a stupid question.

Annabeth laughed. "We do have something to tell you though," she informed my sister.

"What?" Maya asked excitedly, her blue eyes moving back and forth between us. She glanced behind her, at her parents, but if she noticed the camera her dad had pointed at her, she made no comment. She looked back at us, waiting intently.

I laughed at her expression. "You're gonna be an aunt," I told her. Maya just stood there, blinking at me. I could tell she didn't get it.

"How?" she asked, looking confused.

My mom chuckled, "Do you know what it means to be an aunt, Maya?" I realized then that maybe that would have been a better place to start, seeing as my sister didn't actually have any aunts or uncles of her own, as her parents were both only children.

Maya looked back at our mom and seemed to think about it before shaking her head.

"You're an aunt when you have a brother or sister who has a baby," Mom explained, unable to keep from smiling again as she did, excitement just emanating from her, though she gave it her best shot.

Maya nodded slowly, looking thoughtful and a little like she didn't understand why we were telling her this. The gears were turning; I could tell. It was pretty adorable. She looked back at me. "But you don't have a baby," she deducted.

Annabeth laughed beside me. "We're going to," she said.

"There's a baby in Annabeth's belly," I added helpfully.

For a count of three, nothing continued to happen, and then Maya finally got it.

Her eyes widened and she froze, her jaw falling open before her face transformed into a huge smile. She looked between us and glanced quickly back at her parents before her gaze settled on Annabeth again. "There is?!"

Annabeth nodded, smiling. "Yeah."

"_There is?"_ Maya gasped, her smile about as wide as it could be.

"Yes," Annabeth laughed.

In that moment, Maya seemed completely unable to contain her wild excitement. She squealed and jumped up and down. "YAY!" she cried and launched herself at Annabeth in a hug. By now, everyone was laughing.

My sister let go and then hugged me with the same enthusiasm. She started jumping again when she let go. "Isn't that awesome?" I asked, still chuckling.

"Yes!" She stopped jumping, but she still bounced slightly on her toes, her brown, wavy hair bouncing right along with her. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"We don't know yet," I answered.

"I hope it's a girl"

"We'll see."

"When will it be here?"

"In about seven months," Annabeth told her.

Maya' mouth fell open slightly in disappointment. _"Seven months?" _she demanded.

"That's how long it will take for the baby to grow big and strong enough to be born," my mom explained.

"But that's a long time!" she protested.

"It is, huh?" Annabeth sympathized, crouching down to Maya's level, "But that's okay because we have a lot of work to do to get ready for him or her." She smiled. "And you know what? We could use your help."

"You could?"

"Yeah," I told her very seriously, "I think you're big enough for that. What do you think?"

"Yeah!" Maya answered immediately, and just like that, her smile was back and as big as ever. "I can help a lot!"

"Good!" Annabeth responded, matching my sister's enthusiasm.

"You'll see, Maya," Paul said, still filming, "Seven months isn't too long. The baby will be here before you know it."

Maya nodded halfheartedly at her father's words, though she didn't look entirely convinced. She glanced between all of us. "I can help after that too, right?" she questioned, "After the baby is here?"

"You bet," I told her, smiling.

"I think Percy and Annabeth would like that," Mom said, looking proud of Maya's willingness, "They'll probably need a whole lot of help."

She beamed. "I'll be a good helper," she announced, "And a good aunt."

"What are you talking about?" I told her, "Buggie, you'll be the best aunt ever."

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**Just so you guys know, I am probably going to make the next drabble/one-shot thing the one where Maya learns about Percy and Annabeth being demigods. I know you all have been requesting it since basically the beginning, and I'm finally getting around to it. So there's that to look forward to. :)**

**Thanks for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed it. See you next time!**


	9. The Truth, Part 1

**Hey, guys. Sorry for the long wait on this update. I had a lot of issues with it and I'm still not super thrilled with how it turned out, but oh well.**

**I was originally going to make this just one long one-shot of Maya finding out about demigods and everything, but I decided to make it a 2 part thing instead. So here's part one. The next one will hopefully be up soon.**

**I wanted to do something different from my other stories about people learning the truth. I'm not sure how well it ended up working, but hopefully you like it.**

* * *

**Maya is 13.**

**Percy is 30.**

* * *

I closed the sliding door behind me and stepped into the backyard of our house, after putting our son in bed. The rest of my family was out there, where I'd left them, seated around the table outside. My parents and Maya, who were over for the day, and Annabeth, enjoying the nice fall weather. She met my eyes as I settled back into the seat I'd abandoned, her expression questioning. I nodded in reply.

Noah was just over a month shy of his sixth birthday and hadn't taken regular naps for quite some time now, but he'd been up early and had had a busy morning, so I wasn't surprised in the least when he fell asleep on my lap after lunch. He could be counted on to sleep for at least an hour.

My sister was in the middle of a conversation with Annabeth about her soccer team's 4-1 win the day before, animatedly describing one of the plays in great detail for her. Maya, either because she'd inherited her parents' love for words or because she was a teenage girl, had no shortage of things to say, but she managed to still keep the story interesting all the same. She would probably make a good writer someday.

Annabeth listened intently, unconcerned, her hand resting casually on her stomach, slightly rounded now with six months of pregnancy. Her hair was down today and the afternoon sun caught her curls and turned them to gold. She looked beautiful.

When Maya finished with her story, my mom looked from her daughter to settle on Annabeth and me. "So," she said, "Has there been any progress toward a name for my granddaughter yet?"

I glanced at Annabeth beside me. She met my eyes with a pointed look. "Um, no?" I answered. The first time, it had taken us almost the entire pregnancy to decide on a name for Noah, and it looked like we were keeping with that habit for Number Two. Names had power when you were a demigod though; it was an important decision.

Mom just chuckled and shook her head like she'd expected nothing else. Still, she was constantly on us about making a decision. She was very excited to be getting a granddaughter to spoil along with Noah.

"I like Lydia," Maya intoned, "I think you should name her that."

"We'll see, Buggie," I replied.

Maya rolled her eyes at me in a very thirteen-year-old-girl manner. "I can't believe you still call me that." Honestly, I hadn't really been paying attention when I'd said it, but I'd used that nickname since she was born and it wasn't a habit I had any intention of breaking any time soon. Half the time, I used it solely because it annoyed her, though I knew she secretly liked it. A year ago, she'd put up quite the fight about it, but had apparently resigned herself to the name more recently because she took it mostly in stride now. I just grinned at her.

She looked away, but not before I could see her smile. "You're so stupid," she said easily. She was still my sister, after all.

"Maya!" Mom scolded her. I just laughed.

It was short lived though. I froze an instant later, all thoughts of laughter forgotten when a deafening, _familiar _bark broke through the air. I was on my feet and facing the back yard in the next second as a hellhound, after popping into existence, barreled toward me. Maya screamed in terror as Mrs. O'Leary bounded towards us, towards me, but I was engulfed in slobbery kisses before I could do much about it.

"Mrs. O'Leary!" I managed in the midst of the onslaught, "Down! Good to see you too. Down, girl. Let me up!" It took a while and a lot of coaxing, but she eventually backed off enough to allow me to sit up in the grass, just a few feet from the table.

I glanced back at my family. Every one of them was on their feet, wearing expressions of varying degrees of surprise. If there'd been any doubt before over whether Maya had inherited clear sight from our mother, it was gone now. Clearly scared out of her mind at the appearance of my hellhound, she'd nearly launched herself into her father's arms and was staring between Mrs. O'Leary and me with fear, confusion, shock, and at least six other negative emotions written across her face. Paul held his daughter in turn. He didn't look pleased, but he didn't look condemning either. My mom, over her initial surprise, had a hand on Maya's arm and looked merely sympathetic, like she knew, as I did, that I would have to tell Maya the truth now and that I didn't want to have to do it like this. Annabeth just glanced between my sister and me, looking resigned and not at all surprised at the fact that something crazy had just happened. Between the two of us, crazy occurrences weren't really very out of the ordinary at all.

I got to my feet, Mrs. O'Leary next to me. There was a moment of total silence, save for my giant dog's heavy breathing, and before it could be broken by any of us, another familiar figure appeared out of the shadows, none too quietly, and approached the hellhound. "Mrs. O'Leary, you _stupid_-" Nico broke off, noticing me standing there. "Oh, hey, Percy," he said awkwardly, his gaze taking in my family now as well. "And… everyone."

It was my mom who spoke first. "Nico, what's going on?"

"Um," Nico began, "It's my fault really. I was playing with her earlier and I was talking to Will." He glanced at me. "I mentioned how you would kill me if I didn't look out for her properly. And I guess she recognized your name because before I could do anything, she shadow traveled and was gone. To find you apparently." I glanced beside me, to Mrs. O'Leary, who had lain down in the grass, her still-wagging tail hitting rhythmically against the ground, sending small tremors through it. I reached out and patted her side with a sigh. I hadn't visited her in far too long. She was pretty justified in appearing randomly in my backyard. "Sorry to interrupt," Nico finished, looking slightly embarrassed and uncomfortable with all the eyes on him.

My mom sighed. "It's-"

Maya, regaining some of her composure, cut her off. "Wait, stop," she said, straightening but still staying closer than normal to Paul's side. "Stop! Oh, my god! What the _heck _is going on? What _is _that thing? Where did it come from? Where did _he _come from?" She leveled her frantic look on me, "Are you okay? Oh, my god!" she demanded.

"I'm fine, Maya," I responded, answering only the last question for the moment. I tried to make my voice sound as reassuring as possible.

At the same time, Nico looked from my sister at me again, his jaw falling open slightly in realization. "She doesn't know?" he asked me quietly, a look of surprise and slight horror crossing his face.

"Um. No."

He winced. "Oh, man. I'm really sorry." He said it loud enough for my parent's to hear as well. He glanced at them. I didn't reply though. I was watching my sister, who didn't look entirely convinced that I really was okay. She kept glancing between Mrs. O'Leary, who was still content in her spot on the grass, and me. She was clearly still petrified of her, and with good reason. Mrs. O'Leary was a hellhound, a huge, terrifying hellhound, who had literally just appeared out of thin air; and Maya was a normal, thirteen year old, mortal girl who had somehow managed to go this long as my sister without any prior exposure to monsters or other mythologically related creatures. She had every right to be freaked out.

"I should get her out of here," Nico added, looking at Mrs. O'Leary, "You have some explaining to do now, I guess."

I sighed lightly, looking at my hellhound myself and dreading the difficult conversation I would have to have now. "Yeah," I said, but stepped closer to Mrs. O'Leary. Laying down with her head resting on the ground, her eyes were level with mine. I patted her nose. "Hey, girl," I said, "You've gotta go back with Nico, okay? Go with him and I'll come see you soon. I owe you." I wasn't sure how much she actually understood, but she obviously got the gist because she made a disappointed sound but, with one last soaking kiss for good measure, stood up again. I looked at Nico.

"Good luck," he offered.

"Thanks." And with that and a half-hearted smile, Nico climbed atop Mrs. O'leary and the two of them took off, running to the shadow of the nearest tree and disappearing into it.

I looked back toward my family. My parents had been talking to Maya, reassuring her, it sounded like, that everything was, in fact, okay; she wasn't going crazy; we would explain everything. Annabeth stood in the same spot, looking at me. I met her eyes for a split second and a silent communication passed between us before Maya left her parents' sides and rocketed toward me. She jumped into my arms, only now starting to cry. "Are you okay?" she demanded once again.

"I'm okay, Maya, I'm completely fine."

"That thing jumped on you. I thought it was gonna kill you."

"I'm okay, Buggie. It's okay." She continued to hug me for another few seconds before she apparently remembered that I was in on whatever was going on that she didn't know about; that I, in fact, was at the center of it. She immediately extricated herself and stepped back.

"What just happened?" she demanded, looking first at me, and then at everything else. She half-glared at me. "Tell me the truth."

I sighed. I'd known for years that this day was coming, that I couldn't hide my lineage from her forever, but that still wouldn't make the ensuing conversation any easier. I loved Maya to pieces and I preferred that she didn't think I was crazy. But I had no choice anymore, and I wasn't about to lie or manipulate the Mist on my own sister. That would be very wrong, not to mention, it wouldn't solve the problem in the end. It was now or never. "I will," I answered. I glanced back at my parents and Annabeth, who stood watching a few feet away, and then back at Maya. "Let's go inside. I'll explain everything."

Maya, after eyeing me for another second, nodded, and led the way inside. I moved to follow her, glad at least that, while she was shaken up, she didn't seem to be scared of _me_, despite what had just happened; she still trusted me. For that, at least, I was grateful.

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**Thanks for reading! Keep an eye out for Part 2. :) **


	10. The Truth, Part 2

**Hey guys, here's Part 2.  
**

* * *

**_Maya is 13._**

**_Percy is 30._**

* * *

"I'm sorry, Mom," I apologized quietly, while Maya, far enough ahead of us to be out of earshot, made her way into the living room with Paul and Annabeth.

"It's okay, honey," she replied from beside me, "It's not your fault. We all knew this would have to happen someday."

I sighed. "I just didn't want to have to do it like this."

"I know." She put a hand on my arm, "But maybe it's better this way. She's already seen it firsthand. She'll have to believe you."

"That's true, I guess."

My mom gave an encouraging smile. "It'll be fine, Perce. It's Maya. You're her big brother and she adores you. Just tell her the truth."

I held her gaze for a few seconds before turning toward the living room, where my sister waited. I took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," I said, and walked into the room, my mom following behind, sitting down next to Annabeth. My mom joined Paul and Maya on the other couch and exchanged a glance with her husband while Maya set her gaze on me expectantly.

"Alright," I began, trying to gather my thoughts and figure out how to best approach this. "What exactly did you see out there, Maya?" That seemed like a good place to start.

My sister stared at me for a second and then began talking. "I saw a dog the size of a truck tackle you and almost eat your face off." She said this in a surprisingly calm fashion, considering how freaked out she'd been only minutes earlier. "And you didn't even seem surprised or anything."

I nodded. "Okay." I'd been about to say more, but she beat me to it.

"Tell me I'm not crazy," she said, "That that's what actually happened." The rest of our family was quiet, allowing me to do the talking.

"You aren't crazy," I reassured her.

Maya set her look on me. "Well then are _you _crazy? Because you didn't even _blink_!"

I hadn't been expecting that, and I couldn't help it. I laughed, and I wasn't alone. Annabeth did as well. "I can't tell you how many times I've asked him the same question," she said told her.

Maya though was not quite at the point of being amused yet. "Seriously though," she said stoically, "What was that thing?"

I met my parents' eyes, both of whom nodded minutely before leveling my look on Maya again. "That," I said, "was Mrs. O'Leary, my pet hellhound."

Maya blinked at me again. "Your _what_?"

I sighed, "Okay, how much do you know about Greek mythology?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Greek mythology? Like gods and heroes and stuff?"

"And monsters, yeah."

"I don't know. I learned about it last year in school, but… I don't know. Why?"

I didn't answer her. "Do you know what a demigod is?"

"Uh, yeah, it's a half-god, right? Like Hercules."

"Um, yeah, like him." Except not really anymore, since he was a god now, as well as a world-class jerk, but that was beside the point. "The child of a god and a human."

"Okay," Maya said slowly, "So, what?"

"So, those gods are real. Demigods are too. All of it is."

"_What?"_

"You heard me. They're real. Trust me."

Maya looked unconvinced and concerned. "Okay?" she said, "And if they are, so what? What does that have to do with anything?"

I took a deep breath. "It has to do with anything because _I'm_ a demigod." I set my hand on Annabeth's knee beside mine for emphasis. "Both of us are."

Maya stopped right there and just stared at me for a solid five seconds. _"What?"_ she demanded and looked at our parents, looking beyond skeptical, though her incredulous expression wavered slightly at their steady ones.

She looked at me again. "What are you talking about?"

"It's the truth, Maya," Annabeth told her gently.

Maya was just shaking her head. She looked to be trying to decide whether she was being pranked or if we were mentally disturbed. "You… expect me to believe that?" she asked, "That's-that's ridiculous!"

"Maya, listen to me for a second," I said, "I'm not crazy and neither are you. I'm a demigod. My dad is Poseidon, the god of the sea. He and Mom met at the beach in Montauk one summer and- um, had me." I glanced beside my sister, at my mom, who looked had turned slightly pink at that description. I continued, "I know it sounds insane, but it's true. You saw yourself what just happened. It's all real."

I stopped and watched Maya for a minute. She met Annabeth's eyes, who nodded, and then looked at our parents, who gave similar gestures of agreement. "He's not lying, honey," Mom reassured her.

Maya turned back to me, looking conflicted; like every logical part of her was screaming that it wasn't possible, while at the same time, she badly wanted to believe it. Because she'd seen the hellhound with her own eyes and we all had no reason to lie to her. She didn't say anything right away and everyone was quiet as well, allowing her to process. Finally, she took a deep breath and met my eyes. "You're a demigod?" she asked hesitantly. I nodded. She mimicked the action herself, looking pensive. "So, what does that mean exactly?"

"Well," I said, "It mostly means that I grew up with monsters chasing me constantly, dealing with angry gods, going on quests, and fighting in wars."

Maya's eyes widened. "Whoa, seriously?"

"Yup," I replied.

"It also means he has complete control over water," Annabeth put in nonchalantly.

"What?" Maya demanded, looking at me, "Really?"

I shrugged. "Well yeah. Son of the sea god, so…"

She seemed to think for a second and then an odd spark of realization flashed across her face. "So that time you were home from college when you and Annabeth had a fight and you got upset and the sink in the kitchen broke and water went everywhere…?" Beside me, Annabeth had started laughing.

"It wasn't the first time," my mom put in, looking at me in fond amusement, "Or the last."

"Hey," I defended, "That was an accident. And I fixed it after I broke it."

Almost everyone was still laughing. Maya, meanwhile, was shaking her head. "That's so cool," she said, "And _so _unfair!" She looked at Annabeth. "Do you have powers too?"

Annabeth shook her head, still smiling. "Sadly, no."

"She's awesome in other ways," I added, sending a grin in my wife's direction, who just smiled and rolled her eyes. I looked at my sister again. "So, you believe me?"

Maya thought for half a second and then shrugged. "It makes sense if you think about it; explains a lot." She gave a smile, which I returned.

"So… you have a hellhound for a pet?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is that normal?"

Annabeth laughed, "Not really, no."

I smirked. "It's kind of a long story."

"Okay. So, how did you find out you were a demigod? Did Mom know?"

"That's another long story. And yeah, she knew. It's because of her that I didn't have to find out earlier than I did." I met my mom's eyes, who smiled lovingly at me. Maya was looking at me expectantly, clearly waiting for me to explain. I took a deep breath, which turned into a short laugh of relief. "Okay," I said, launching into the story, "Well, I was twelve years old, going to this school upstate for "troubled kids." And we went on this field trip…"

* * *

**Thanks for reading! The next All That Matters update is coming soon. Keep an eye out! :)**


	11. Flower Girl

**Hey everyone.**

**So I know it has literally been forever since I've updated this. I'm so sorry. Anyone who tells you that your senior year of high school is the easiest is lying. I've been insanely busy.**

**Anyway, so I felt bad for making you wait so long for an update, so I just whipped this up in an hour or so. I think it's cute. Hopefully you do too. :)**

* * *

_Percy is 22._

_Maya is 5._

* * *

I stared at my reflection in the mirror before me, robotically tightening the tie around my neck, lost in thought. Normally the fact that I was wearing a tie, much less a _tuxedo,_ would have been slightly annoying, but my mind was on other things.

I was getting married today. To Annabeth. _Finally._ In just over an hour, she would be my wife and our lives together would begin.

The wedding was taking place at a hotel right on the beach in Montauk because, Annabeth had told me, if she had to wear a dress, she didn't want sand in it, which I supposed was a reasonable request. We had rented two rooms, one for me and my groomsmen: Grover and Frank, to get ready in, and one for Annabeth and the girls to. We'd be going downstairs for the ceremony soon and I was starting to feel the pressure.

I was beyond excited. And also-I couldn't deny it-nervous. Not to marry Annabeth of course, just about everything else. We did have gods in attendance, after all. I wanted today to be perfect.

A small part of my brain, the part that was always on high alert even when I wasn't paying attention at all, registered the room's door opening and someone laughing "Incoming!" I didn't respond.

The sound of a familiar little voice a few seconds later broke me from my thoughts though. "Percy!" I turned to see my little sister charging toward me, dressed in her white flower girl dress, complete with a little crown of white flower petals in her hair. Paul appeared quite a few steps behind her, watching his little girl in amusement. My mom was with Annabeth, no doubt.

I smiled widely, immediately feeling better. "Hey, Buggie!"

She slowed to a stop in front of me and twirled in a circle. "Look at me," she said, "I'm like a princess!"

"I know! You look so pretty."

"You look pretty too," she informed me with a huge smile. Her excitement was seriously adorable.

I laughed. "Thank you."

Paul had appeared behind her, smirking. "She insisted on seeing you before it started," he explained.

"To show you my dress!" Maya supplied.

I smiled at her. "I like your dress a lot," I told her earnestly, "It's very pretty." She smiled widely.

Paul chuckled. "You ready?" he asked me.

"I think so."

"Are you nervous?"

"A little, yeah."

"Why?" Maya asked, staring up at me.

"Why, what?" I asked.

"Why are you nervous?" she clarified, "Don't you love Annabeth?"

I gave a laugh. "Yeah, I love her a lot."

"So then you shouldn't be nervous," she stated matter-of-factly.

"You're right," I told her, amused. I nodded my head seriously at her. Life was very simple when you were five.

"Yeah," Maya replied, "So you can marry Annabeth today and then I'll have a brother _and _a sister. Right? That's what Mommy said."

"Yeah, that's right," I told her.

"Yay!" She looked like those three words just made her whole day. She adored Annabeth.

Frank walked over then. "Sorry to interrupt," he said and looked at me, "Piper's at the door. She said we head down in five minutes."

I nodded, anxious excitement fluttering in my gut, and he walked away.

"I guess that's our cue to go find our seats," Paul said. He looked at me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Good luck," he said, and with a smile, added, "And congratulations."

"Thanks," I told him, smiling back.

"Alright," he said to Maya, "C'mon Cutie, let's go find Mommy."

"Is it gonna start?" she asked.

"Yes."

She gasped in elation. "Yay!" she jumped up and down once and then took off toward the door. With one last quick glance, which was probably supposed to look encouraging, at me, Paul took off after her, calling for her to slow down and wait for him because she didn't know where she was going. I watched in amusement, and a moment later, they disappeared out the door.

* * *

The thing about the first dance at a wedding is it's just the two of you. I guess I could understand the tradition of it or whatever, but I wasn't totally comfortable with every eye in the room fixed on the two of us while we attempted to navigate the dance floor.

I have to admit, dancing, with Annabeth at least, had become a little easier since we were kids. I knew her better than anyone and I could move in synch with her easily in a fight. I supposed, in a weird way, dancing worked similarly. We didn't step on each other's feet as much anymore, but we were still far from being _good _dancers. We took the safe route and did little more than sway back and forth to the music in a gentle circle.

Annabeth looked incredible. She was easily the most beautiful bride in the world.

"I can't believe this is real," she muttered, half to herself.

I smiled. "Believe it, _Mrs. Jackson_."

Her returning smile was dazzling. "_That's _going to take some getting used to," she said.

"You have the rest of our lives," I told her.

She smiled. "Yes, I do."

"I think it has a very nice ring to it personally." Annabeth shook her head, still smiling, but she didn't deny that fact. I kissed her then, which, if the cheering was anything to go by, the people watching really liked.

The song ended and the music changed, becoming upbeat, and the other guests moved to join us on the dance floor, which I was really grateful for. We got through just over one more song before we were interrupted.

"Percy!" It was Maya, of course. She sauntered over, looking expectant and excited. "Percy, can I dance like Annabeth?"

I looked back at Annabeth, my _wife_ (thinking of her like that was so bizarre and amazing). She just smiled. "I'm going to go find my dad," she said, taking her arms from around my neck, where they'd been resting as we danced.

"Okay," I said and smirked as she turned and, circumnavigating the couples dancing around us, did just that. I looked at Maya and held my hands out to her. She took them, delighted.

"This is the best wedding ever," she told me. She'd never been to any other one, but the point still stood.

"I think you're right," I told her.

She looked thoughtful for a second then. I twirled her around. "You're gonna move to your new apartment with Annabeth now, right?" she asked.

"Yup," I told her. We had sat down with her a few weeks ago, when we'd rented the place, to tell her this.

She looked worried then. "You're still gonna come over a lot, right?"

"Yeah, Buggie," I said, "I told you we would."

"Promise?"

I smiled. "I promise."

She seemed totally fine again after that, happy as a clam. Maya was simple like that. She didn't ask for very much. And her worries were unnecessary anyway. I could never just get married and not see her anymore. She was way too important to me.

She smiled, "Spin me again."

I laughed and did as she said, twirling her under my arm once more.

She requested dances about every ten minutes for the rest of the night, and I conceded to her wishes almost every time because she was my baby sister and it just made her so darn happy, I couldn't say no.

* * *

**Thank you for reading!**


	12. Homework Interruptor

**Hey guys! So, I wanted to take a second to thank you all for the reviews and overall support throughout this story. I've really enjoyed reading your thoughts and knowing you're all enjoying Percy and Maya's adventures together!**

**So anyway, for this chapter, I really just wanted to write some more Percy and Maya fluffy baby cuteness, so that's what I did! It's just a quick thing I whipped up in a couple of hours, but I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And again, thanks for everything. You guys are awesome!**

* * *

_**Percy is 17.  
**_

_**Maya is 6 months.**_

* * *

I sat on the floor of my living room and sighed, leaning back against the foot of the couch and closing my eyes against the headache budding behind my eyes, courtesy of the math homework spread out on my lap. The rational expressions had actually been going somewhat well for a while now, but, as it was with any involved schoolwork, my dyslexia only cooperated for so long before the numbers started doing somersaults across the paper. And with math, it was that much worse. I found myself wondering, for probably the millionth time, how Annabeth could possibly find any of this even remotely enjoyable.

Paul sat at the desk in the corner, diligently grading papers and paying me little attention, and my mom was down the hall, putting away the laundry she'd just folded. The apartment was quiet and lacking in distractions for the moment, which was really the only reason I'd gotten as far with it as I did.

I'm not sure how long I sat there glaring down at the assignment, waiting for the equations to stop floating off the page, but it was long enough that Maya woke up from her nap. The baby monitor on the table behind me flared up with the sound of her crying. Paul looked up at the noise but went back to work again when my mom called from the hallway that she'd get her. I sat there, tapping the eraser end of my pencil against my leg, and listened to the sound of her going in and picking the baby up. Maya must have needed a diaper change or something because my mom didn't come back out with her right away. Reluctantly, with the sounds of my mom's voice and my sister's babbling still coming from the monitor, I went back to my math homework. I only had a few problems left and I honestly just wanted to get it over with.

A few minutes later, the sounds coming from the monitor quieted and, after another few seconds, my mom walked into the living room with the baby on her hip. "Hey, Perce," she said, "Think you can keep an eye on her for a little while for me? I want to get dinner started. I was hoping she'd sleep a little longer."

"Yeah, sure," I said, watching as she, after thanking me, sat my sister on the carpet a few feet from me. At just shy of seven months, Maya wasn't exactly mobile yet, so she wouldn't be going far from that spot, but she didn't seem to mind. She gave me a huge, gummy smile. I laughed. "Hi."

The baby leaned back a little and lost her balance, falling onto her back, which probably scared me more than it did her. I dropped my pencil and leaned forward to catch her a second too late. She just kept smiling at me. I straightened, laughing as I watched her.

She rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up with her arms, facing away from me now. I pushed the math work, all but forgotten now, off my lap and to the side before moving to help her. I spun her around so she was facing me again and, even if I'd only been out of her sight for a few seconds, the moment I was back in it, the smile was back. She kicked her legs excitedly against the floor behind her.

Not only was my sister the cutest baby on earth, she was also quite possibly the happiest.

Her pink rattle, one of her favorite toys, sat on the coffee table next to me. I grabbed it and gave it to her. Maya, lying still on her stomach, took it, shook it for all of two seconds, and then promptly put it in her mouth. I kneeled in front of her, watching as she, taking it back out of her mouth, started shaking it again and babbling excitedly, "Babababa."

"I'm gonna get you," I said, crawling toward her, "I'm gonna get you!" She squealed, bobbing up and down on her arms. I scooped her up and held her above my head to blow on her belly. "I got you!" She giggled adorably, which, in turn, had me laughing. It was hard to say how much work Paul was really getting done by now himself, as he was watching, pen in hand but doing little else, with a smile of his own.

I sat back, kneeling on the floor again, and stood the baby up on my knees, supporting most of her weight. I picked the rattle up from where she'd dropped it when I'd picked her up, and put it back in her hand. She ate it again, babbling, "Bababa," around it. After another thirty seconds, she lost interest in the toy and it hit the floor again.

I leaned my face toward her, echoing her "words" back. She reached forward with both hands and grabbed either side of my face, grasping a good amount of hair, which, I admit, needed trimming, in one fist as she did. "Ow," I told her, shifting her weight to one arm so I could disentangle my hair from her hand, "Ow, let go." Paul laughed at that. Maya, still smiling, just took it in stride. She let go easily enough and switched to bending her knees up and down on my lap instead. I grabbed her hands and held her up as she bounced and laughed adorably. "You are seriously the cutest baby ever," I informed her.

"Abababa."

Her legs stilled and I adjusted my grip on her and sat her down on my lap. She was happy to comply, stuffing one hand in her mouth and reaching out to grab her fallen rattle again with her other, all the while babbling incoherently to herself.

And while I'd like to say I pulled the good student card and finished my work with the hand that wasn't occupied with keeping my baby sister upright on my lap, it wouldn't be the truth. In reality, I'd completely forgotten it was even there. Maya was just much more entertaining. And how could I resist playing with her instead, when she met my every glance with a huge smile and giggled adorably every time I tickled her? It just wouldn't have been right.

My homework could definitely wait.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**And as always, requests and ideas for future chapters are always welcome. :) **


	13. Brother of the Bride

**Hey guys! Another update!**

**Ever since the beginning of this fic, people have been asking for a Maya's Wedding scene. Not sure if this is quite what you all had in mind, but this is what came out of a post-midnight writing binge last night, so here you go. :)**

* * *

_**Percy is 41.**  
_

**_Maya is 24._**

* * *

The reception had been going on for almost an hour now, and I was thoroughly enjoying the opportunity it presented me to dance with Annabeth. The kids were around somewhere, otherwise entertained, and I was honestly loving the time with her. Far too rarely were we able to get that anymore.

Maya had gotten married earlier today and by the time the reception started, I had officially had it with the monkey suit I'd been forced to wear all day as a part of it. I was much happier now, sleeves rolled up and tie loosened as they were. Annabeth had shot me what was probably supposed to be a disapproving look as I'd made them this way, but her obvious amusement had ruined it and she wasn't wearing her high heels either, so I felt no shame.

The song, which had been a bit more on the upbeat side, changed now to a slower one, and I relished the opportunity to hold Annabeth close to sway to it.

"This is nice," she said after a minute, mirroring my thoughts pretty perfectly.

I hummed in agreement. "We should do this more often," I replied, "Dump the kids somewhere and go out."

She smiled. "Spoken like a true parent of preteens." After a moment, she added, "I don't disagree."

"Maybe I'll ask my mom to take them for a weekend sometime. We can go somewhere alone."

Annabeth smiled and I knew she approved of that idea. "I don't think they'll appreciate being babysat."

"Too bad. I love them but I don't trust them. Not enough to leave them alone for more than a few hours." Annabeth laughed but didn't contradict that.

We danced a little more in comfortable silence before she spoke again. "This reminds me of our wedding. We played this song too." I listened to it for a few seconds, trying to place it with my memories of that night. She smiled wider. "Don't worry, Seaweed Brain. I don't expect you to remember that."

I grinned. "I had other things on my mind that night."

"I bet you did."

"I remember Maya wanted to dance with me, like, every five minutes," I stated, chuckling, as I caught sight of my sister dancing with her _husband_, Brandon. I mentally shook my head. Maya had a husband. _That _was going to take some getting used to. I liked Brandon well enough, but still.

Annabeth grinned widely, bringing me back to the present. "You kept letting her, too. You couldn't say no to her."

"Of course I couldn't. She was adorable back then." Annabeth laughed and I twirled her under my arm. The song ended soon after that, only to be followed by another slow one, this one only slightly faster paced than the last. I made no effort to move.

A second later, however, I was interrupted by a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Maya, of all people, standing there and smirking. "Fancy a dance, big brother?" she asked. I stared at her for a second and then looked at Annabeth, who looked on the verge of bursting into laughter. She stepped away from me, giving me little say in the matter.

Smirking myself, I turned back to Maya, "Sure," I said, and my sister replaced Annabeth as my partner. "Where's Brandon?" I asked.

"Talking to some school friend," she answered easily, pointing with her chin to a point on her left.

Smirking again, I said, "You know, at my wedding, you interrupted Annabeth and me every few minutes all night asking me to dance with you."

Maya grinned in reply. "I know. That's why I did it just now."

I laughed. "Thanks."

"Anytime," she replied, unashamed.

"Do you know," I asked after a minute, "how _old_ I feel right now? Dancing with you at your _wedding_." I shook my head.

Maya smirked, saw her opening, and took it. "Well you are pretty old, she said reasonably, "Like _forty._" She said it like an expletive.

"Don't remind me." She laughed. Honestly, I didn't really have a problem with being over forty. As someone who'd once feared that he wouldn't live to see sixteen, forty with a wife and kids was not too shabby at all. But I wasn't about to let Maya know that. "I feel like I was just babysitting you while you crawled around on the floor, babbling. When did _you _get so old, Buggie?"

Maya raised her eyebrows, smiling, at the nickname. "Haven't heard that one in a while," she said.

"You haven't let me use it in a while."

"That never stopped you before," she joked.

I raised my eyebrows playfully. "Well alright then, from now on, I will refer to you as nothing else. And I'll make sure my kids do too."

"Oh, please no. Noah would take that one to my grave."

I laughed. "I know," I answered evilly.

"What have I gotten myself into?" she intoned, rolling her eyes but smiling.

"Some embarrassment, for sure. Amusement for me…"

"I should have left you and Annabeth alone."

"I agree," I told her, enjoying this. She gave a short laugh but didn't reply. The song changed again, but the next song was similar enough that we didn't have to alter our dancing very much.

"Thanks for being in my wedding, Perce," Maya said after a short span.

"Anything for you," I told her. "I still stand by what I said though. I don't care if you're married. If he hurts you, I will make him regret it. You just say the word."

"I'd expect nothing less," Maya said, laughing. She sobered quickly, "Thank you for accepting him. You and Dad, I know why you were so hard on him. It drove me crazy, but…"

"Well," I said unapologetically, "I couldn't let my sister go out with just anyone, you know."

"But Brandon passed your test."

I pretended to consider it. "Yeahhh," I said, dragging the word out, "I guess he did." Maya looked pleased to hear it, as if it wasn't obvious that, if he hadn't, I would have never allowed her to marry the guy. Paul either. "If you ever have kids though, I am going to pretend it occurred out of Immaculate Conception."

Maya laughed. "I'll remember to spare you the details of our honeymoon then."

"Gods, please do." She laughed again.

"I love you, Percy."

"I love you too, Buggie," I replied, lapsing back into use of the nickname. She smiled at it. We danced for the rest of the song, and when it ended, I unwrapped my arms from around her. "I think your husband is looking for you," I informed my sister, catching Brandon's searching eye across the room.

She followed my gaze and smiled. "Thanks for the dance," she said and kissed me on the cheek, before turning and braving the crowd to reach her husband. I turned away, searching the faces for that of my wife. I found her seated at our table talking to my mom and started making my way over to them, certain that I would treasure that dance with Maya for the rest of my life.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**I posted a few one-shots recently, so go check those out if you haven't already, if you'd be so kind. I'd really appreciate it!**


	14. Nap Time

**Hi, guys!  
**

**I forgot how much I enjoyed writing Percy and Maya, so here's another update for you because it's fun. This update has some Percabeth in it too, so enjoy! :)**

* * *

**_Percy is 18._**

**_Maya is 14 months._**

* * *

"What time is Annabeth coming?" my mom asked me, leading a tottering Maya slowly into the living room by the hand. It was early January, a few days after New Years. I was home from New Rome for the holidays. The new semester didn't begin until the end of the month, and I was enjoying the opportunity the break provided me to see my family, who I hadn't seen much of since going away to school at the end of the summer.

Paul and I were in the living room already. It was late afternoon. He had turned on a college basketball game a little while ago and I had sprawled out on the couch to watch it while I waited for my girlfriend to arrive. He sat in an armchair, grading papers for his English class (school had started up again a few days ago) and occasionally looking up when something interesting happened with the game.

Annabeth had stayed behind in California a week and a half ago to celebrate Christmas with her family. She and Piper, who had traveled there to be with her dad for the same reason, had flown home together earlier today (Annabeth and I were planning to spend some time at Camp Half-Blood before heading back to New Rome.) and had landed in the city about an hour ago. Piper had already arranged for Jason to pick them up at the airport and drop Annabeth here on their way back to camp before I could offer. I'd planned to go get her myself anyway but Annabeth had argued that it didn't make sense for me to and I hadn't had a good enough reason not to listen to that logic. So now I was waiting for her to get here so we could go out to dinner.

"Pretty soon, I think," I answered, "Their plane landed a while ago." As I spoke, Maya caught sight of me and, smiling, let go of her mom's hand and wobbled her way over to me. She'd been walking for a couple months now, but she still hadn't quite mastered the art of balancing just yet. She fell down often. "Per-ee!" She stopped in front of the couch, bracing herself against it and looked up at me expectantly. Smirking, I grabbed her under the arms and lifted her up so she was seated on my chest. I watched her for a minute, surprised when she was content to stay there. Ever since she'd learned how to get around on her own, she wasn't typically content to stay in one place for any extended amount of time.

Paul, who had watched our exchange over the top of his reading glasses, looked at my mom. "I'm guessing naptime didn't work out so well."

My mom shook her head and sighed. "I tried. I don't know how she's still so wide-awake. She didn't nap all that long before. She was up early this morning too." Turning my head away from my parents' conversation, I looked at Maya again, who was sitting, braced between my hands, on top of me and smiling toothily, happy as a clam, troublemaker that she was. I smirked up at her.

After a minute, my mom left the room again, saying something about laundry, Paul looked back down at the papers before him, and I turned back to the game while still keeping Maya firmly in my grasp. My sister stayed there, cooing and drooling on me, for a few minutes before giving a high pitched squeal and leaning forward. I maneuvered her so she was lying on her stomach now, still on my chest. I kept one hand on her back, holding her securely in place. She put one hand in her mouth and set the other against my cheek, content with her new position. I smiled and turned back to the TV again, though I wasn't paying much attention to it by this point. Maya opened and closed her little fist against my face and chewed diligently on the fingers of her other hand, which I found very cute and very distracting.

Eventually her movements slowed and her head came to rest against the fabric of my shirt. I snuck a glance at her from the corner of my eye and saw that her eyes were still open, but she was blinking pretty slowly, so I had a pretty good idea that she would soon be dead to the world.

My mom returned after another few minutes, probably to attempt to put Maya down for a nap one more time before starting on dinner. She stopped in the doorway between the living room and kitchen, looking at the sleeping baby before smiling at me fondly. "Sweetie, you are the best."

I grinned. "I know." Just then, there was a knock on the door. "That would be Annabeth," I intoned, glancing toward the door, and then at the sleeping toddler currently pinning me down.

"Stay there," my mom directed, already moving toward the entryway, "I'll get it." Afraid that if I tried to move Maya on my own, I would wake her, I stayed still.

As my mom walked away and out of view, I looked down at my sleeping sister again. Her hand, which had been resting against my cheek, had slid off and now lay pillowed against the side of my neck. The other hand was still partially in her open mouth, where she was surely drooling all over my shirt. I was oddly okay with that. I moved my arm, the one that wasn't busy keeping Maya in place, behind my head.

The sounds of the front door opening and of my mom and Annabeth's greetings floated in from the front door. "He's in the living room," I heard my mom say, and not long after, Annabeth's face appeared in the doorway. She smiled at the scene before her and greeted Paul before looking at me again.

"Hey," I said.

"Aren't you adorable," she said by way of responding.

I shrugged as best as I could, careful not to jostle Maya. "I'm a good pillow."

Annabeth's grin widened. "I know."

"How was your flight?"

"Long. Traffic was horrendous getting here."

My mom came back in the room then and, between the two of us and some careful maneuvering on my part, we were able to transfer Maya from her place on my chest to my mom's arms. Once she had left to put the baby in her room, I looked at Annabeth, who was still smiling, amused. In the process of moving Maya, I had shifted so I was sitting up normally, and I now opened my arms to my girlfriend, an obvious invitation. Her smile shifting into more of a smirk, she complied and sat down next to me, leaning into my hug. "My turn?" she asked, a smile in her voice.

"Yup. Are you hungry?" I asked, letting her go.

"Starving."

"Come on," I said, standing up. "We'll go get dinner."

"I _just _got here."

"So?"

Annabeth, after rolling her eyes at me, smiled and got to her feet herself just as my mom walked back into the room. "Thank you, Percy, seriously," she was saying; "I've been trying to get her down all afternoon."

"No problem."

"You two are going out now, right? I want to know how much food to make."

Yup," I answered her, leading Annabeth by the hand toward the door. I kissed my mom on the cheek on the way out. "Be back later."

My mom smiled. "Have fun."

A minute later, we had our coats on and were out the door. Annabeth grabbed my hand as we walked out. She was still smirking. "What?" I asked as we stepped out onto the Mahnattan sidewalk.

She glanced sideways at me, her smile widening. She shook her head. "Nothing." She didn't say anything else immediately and I was about to press further when she said, "I just can't wait to see you with our kids one day."

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**


	15. Driving Lesson

**Hello!**

**I present to you this update. It was written with love. :)**

* * *

_**Percy is 33.  
**_

_**Maya is 16.**_

* * *

"Okay, Maya," I said, shutting myself in the passenger seat and looking at her, "Whatever you do, please don't kill me."

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Just saying," I said, holding my hands up in surrender, "I've got a wife and kids at home, so…"

"Shut up," she said lightly, hands on the wheel. "Now, what do I do?"

I had driven us to a back road outside the city, the kind that gets about two cars a day and serves as a good learning experience for new drivers, and had pulled over to let Maya take the wheel. Originally, I'd figured Paul would be the one to teach her how to drive; he'd been the one to teach me after all. So I'd been kind of surprised when she'd asked me to take her today, but who was I to refuse my little sister?

Not to mention, my skills were pretty top-notch if I did say so myself.

"Okay, well first, you know where the brake is, right? That's important."

She rolled her eyes, playfully exasperated. "_Yes._ I've been over that stuff a bunch of times already with Mom and Dad, I just haven't actually moved at all yet."

"Just making sure." I glanced out behind us, checking for oncoming traffic. Since we were on one of the quietest roads I knew (it was on the way to camp and I don't think I'd ever seen another vehicle on it at the same time), I wasn't surprised to see that there wasn't any. "Alright, keep your foot on the brake and shift into park. Maya did as she was told and, with one last look around for good measure, I said, "Now turn the wheel a little and pull onto the road. Take your time."

Maya nodded at my words, looking slightly nervous, and, taking a deep breath, did just that. "Good job," I told her. It had been a little slow, but overall wasn't a bad first attempt, "Whenever you do that, make sure you check your mirrors and make sure no one's coming, obviously. Especially on any other street where it's busier."

She nodded, eyes focused on the road before her. She was gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles had turned slightly white. "Relax, Buggie," I told her, "You're doing fine."

Loosening her grip marginally, she asked, "What do I do now?"

"Just go straight for now, follow the road. It get's a little curvy up ahead. Get a feel for it." She nodded in acknowledgement. "Try to move to the right a little," I added, "You're kind of in the middle of the road right now."

She glanced toward the right of the windshield, looking unsure. "I'm scared I'm gonna go off the road."

"You won't," I promised her, "You've got tons of room, trust me."

Hesitantly, she shifted the wheel a tiny bit. "A little more," I encouraged, reaching over and grabbing the bottom of the steering wheel, helping her guide the car over a bit more. "You want to be about right here."

"Okay."

When the road began curving, Maya slowed the car down even more to maneuver it and I was glad both for her caution and the fact that we were on such a deserted road because anyone driving behind us would have been pretty annoyed. At a sharper curve, she turned the wheel with both hands firmly in their places, arms stiff and robotic, so she kind of turned her whole body with it, which was entertaining to watch. I tried to keep the amusement out of my voice when I said; "You can move your hands on the wheel when you turn, Maya. You're supposed to. Kind of walk them around it so you don't have to contort yourself like that."

"Sorry."

"It's okay."

When the road straightened out a bit, I checked to make sure we were still alone on it before looking at her again. "Okay, want to try something else? There's no one behind us; try to stop the car." I'd been about to instruct her how to do this, but before I could say more than, "Be-" she hit the brakes hard and stopped short, jerking the both of us forward. Thankfully, we hadn't been going very fast."

"Sorry- I'm sorry!" Maya said, eyes wide.

This time I did laugh. "It's fine. Just, next time ease it down gently. That way, you'll slow down and then stop instead of doing _that_."

Despite herself, Maya cracked a smirk. "Okay." She was normally very laid back, especially for a teenage girl, and it was weird seeing her so stiff and worked up.

"Do you want to try again."

Maya looked from me, to the steering wheel she still gripped in her hands. "Um…"

"Try again," I told her, "Don't worry, you're doing fine."

"Okay."

"Speed up again," I instructed, keeping an eye out for approaching vehicles, "like you were before-there you go. Now press the brake down slowly." Her stop this time could have been a bit faster, but the general idea of it was good. "Right. That was good."

"That was really slow, though."

"Yeah, and if you stop like that in the city, you'll definitely get rear-ended, but for right now, it was fine. Once you learn how to do it, you won't have to think so much and it will be quicker."

"That's what Mom said, that once you know how to drive, you don't have to think about it as much."

"You don't," I confirmed, "You do have to pay attention still though. Especially driving in Manhattan."

She looked at me. "Yeah, I'm really scared to do that."

"We'll ease you into it," I assured her. She nodded, still stopped in the middle of the empty road. "Do you want to keep going?" I asked her. "We can do more another day."

She thought for a second. "Can we do stopping one more time? And then be done?"

I gestured easily with my hand, like _go on_, and we began moving again. Her third attempt at stopping was much better. "That was really good,"  
I complimented, grinning. Maya smiled at me, looking pleased with herself. "Do you want to keep going? You can turn around and drive back that way for a bit."

"I'm good," she said, looking like she'd scared herself enough for one day.

I smirked. "Okay. Pull slowly over to the side of the road and put it in park." Once she did that, she gradually lifted her foot off the brake and, pleased to see we didn't go anywhere, looked at me. "That was pretty good," I told her proudly.

She gave a small smile, looking slightly embarrassed. "Thanks for teaching me."

"Of course," I said in a tone like, _what did you expect me to do?_ And held my hand out. Knowing what I was doing, my sister smiled wider and brought her own hand up to mine; executing the secret handshake she'd made up for us at about nine years old. It had been awesome then and it was awesome now. I smirked at her again and then unbuckled my seatbelt to get out and take over behind the wheel once more.

"Thanks for not crashing my car," I said, having turned around and begun driving us back toward the city.

Maya, looking less frazzled now that she was a passenger once more, rolled her eyes playfully. "There wasn't anything around _to_ crash into."

"That doesn't matter. I've wrecked enough stuff over the years to know there's always a way."

She laughed. "I'm willing to bet your circumstances were _slightly_ different."

"You'd win that bet."

* * *

**Because _obviously _Percy and Maya have a secret handshake. And I honestly can't see Percy ever allowing her to become "too old" to use it.  
**

**Thanks for reading!**


	16. Nightmare

**Hey guys! Here's a super long update for you. Seriously, I don't know what happened. Normally chapters for this story average about 1,000 words. This one is over 3,000... A tragedy, isn't it? :)**

**So, cool little fact for you: as of today, I have officially been a part of FF. net for 3 years! Yay! ...Yeah, okay, maybe that's not very exciting, but I thought it was worth noting. :)**

* * *

_**Percy is 17.**_

_**Maya is 1 month.**_

* * *

I woke from the nightmare in a cold sweat and sat up quickly, breathing heavily. I took in my dark bedroom, trying to get a hold of myself while the images played back behind my eyes. Annabeth, blind and helpless; Akhlys, begging me to stop the poison moving toward her; Bob and Damasen charging into battle to sacrifice themselves for us…

As a demigod, I wasn't exactly new to the concept of nightmares, but since Tartarus, they had become significantly worse. Most nights, my brain liked to run through everything that had happened down there over and over, replaying the scariest, most painful parts again and again. And when that happened, like tonight, I'd wake up in near panic and would not be going back to sleep any time soon.

As my heart rate slowed and the blood pounding in my ears quieted a little, I could make out the unmistakable sounds, muffled as they were, of a baby crying in the apartment. Under the pretense of getting a glass of water, I untangled my legs from the blankets, got up, and walked toward my door.

In the hallway, the crying grew louder and clearer. My mom was pacing back and forth between the kitchen and living room with an unhappy Maya cradled in her arms, a blanket hanging half-off her and serving no real purpose at the moment. I watched from the kitchen doorway in the dimness for a moment before Mom noticed me. She didn't appear at all surprised to see me up and I wasn't sure whether it was a testament to her exceptional mothering capabilities or just plain sad that she obviously knew it wasn't the baby that had woken me.

I met her eyes for a moment but didn't say anything as I walked into the kitchen and headed toward the sink, took a glass out of the drainer, and proceeded to fill it with water. I could feel her eyes on me the whole time as I walked over to the kitchen table, set the glass down after taking a small sip, and flung myself down in the nearest chair. Distracted by my entrance, she had stopped pacing with Maya and stood still, bouncing the still-crying baby in her arms as she looked at me. Maya didn't seem to care one way or another; she was apparently unhappy either way. My mom looked as exhausted as I felt, though she was losing sleep for a very different reason.

Maya was, as my mom had called it, colicky, which meant she would get upset for no discernable reason and cry, sometimes for hours on end, and there was very little anyone could do about it. Unfortunately for my parents, Maya got like this late at night, so the two of them were sleeping just about as well as I was lately. She would, my mom had assured me, eventually grow out of it, but until then it was just something that needed to take its course.

After another few seconds, my mom set to trying to calm my sister down again, with little progress being made one way or another. I took a deep breath, my heavy eyelids fighting against my wired brain, and stood up, closing the distance between myself and my mom and sister with my arms open. "Let me try," I said as softly as I could while still being heard over Maya's crying. My mom didn't comply right away, but seemed to study me, taking in my undoubtedly tired eyes and still-pale face and probably trying to determine whether it was worth trying to get me to go back to bed. She knew as well as I did how bad the nightmares could get. "I'm not going back to sleep any time soon," I assured her, "You might as well. You look exhausted."

"Thanks a lot," she said dryly, and glanced down at the baby in her arms, bouncing her more before looking back at me, "Don't get frustrated if she doesn't stop," she warned, "She can tell if you're stressed or frustrated. It will only make it worse." I nodded my understanding and she moved to place Maya, squirming and kicking, into my waiting arms. Once there, Maya quieted some, quiet whimpers replacing her outright cries. I grinned at my mom, who looked surprised and then just smirked, shaking her head. I bounced Maya gently in my arms, mimicking the way Mom had been doing it, while she tucked the blanket around the now slightly calmer, though still far from happy, baby.

My mom took a step back and regarded us once more, looking conflicted, like she wasn't sure leaving me with the baby was fair to me, despite the fact that I asked. She finally seemed to give in. Slumping slightly in exhaustion now that Maya was in my arms, she said, "I fed and changed her about twenty minutes ago, so she should be okay for a while. Come get me if you need anything or change your mind, okay?" I nodded and she stepped forward and kissed my cheek. "Thank you, Percy," she said, obviously extremely grateful.

"Get some sleep," I told her easily. Mom gave a short laugh, shook her head, and, without another word, left me standing in the kitchen with Maya. The baby had begun crying in earnest again, though she still seemed slightly calmer than she'd been before. I thought there was probably some truth to my mom's words about babies sensing stress and I was willing to bet that my mom was more frustrated with the constant crying than she let on. I was happy to help if it meant she could get some rest, and I was up anyway. One of us might as well take advantage of sleep if we could get it.

I shifted Maya so she was cradled against my chest, her head near my shoulder, keeping a firm hold on her back and her bottom, and, wrapping the blanket as tightly around her as I could while holding her, I started walking with her the way Mom had. After a minute of this, my sister's cries turned mostly to whimpers once more and I took that to mean I was doing something right. "There you go," I murmured, "It's okay."

Talking to her seemed to help a little because she grew quiet for a moment and, looking down at her I could see her eyes were wide opened as she lay against me. Encouraged, I kept going. "This isn't so bad," I said, "Mommy's just tired. You keep her up all night, you know. And then she takes care of all of us during the day. It's a lot of work. What do you say, Buggie, maybe cut her some slack once in a while?" Maya gave another whimper, but didn't start crying again just then. Still bouncing and walking around, I kept going. "I know you have to eat all the time. I get that, but maybe let her get a little sleep sometimes too?"

Maya had grown almost completely quiet now. She was very warm against me, worked up as she'd been until now, and I loosened the blanket around her just a little bit, afraid she might be too hot with it on. The low lights in the kitchen were still on, allowing enough light into the living room for me to be able to walk without banging into things. She was still wide-awake, looking all around with an avid fascination that only someone new to the world could really manage.

"So what do you think, Maya?" I asked, crooning in her ear, determined to keep talking, since she seemed to like it, "You like the world, so far? There's a lot of cool stuff out here. I'll show you some of them when you're older, okay? It'll be fun, I promise. I'll take you to that park downtown that I pass on the way to school so you can play. And get you ice cream. You're gonna love it. And someday, when you're big enough, we'll go to Montauk-it's really awesome there, and we'll go to the beach. I'll take you in the water and find you seashells. And maybe, when you're old enough to know the truth, I'll take you under the ocean and show you how cool it is down there. We won't go too deep-I still don't really know how much pressure normal people can handle, but it'll be fun. I think you'll like it.

"I suppose I'll have to tell you sometime about me," I said to her, "That'll be interesting. It's okay though, I think you'll be cool about it. I'm not like you, Buggie. My life has been super complicated until recently. I guess it still is complicated, really, but it's better now. And I think it'll stay that way. Gods, I hope it does. I don't think I can handle much more of the way things have been for us these past few years, all the quests and wars and everything. I want the peace to last a while, and maybe for someone else to save the day for once… Well, I don't know if I want that, really. I don't think I'd wish some of the stuff I've been through on my worst enemy. Not a half-blood enemy, anyway. All the monsters and stuff, they can have Tartarus forever, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe there can just not be a day that needs saving at all for a while."

I paused for a second, lost in thought at all I'd just said. I wasn't sure really where I was going with it. I'd just been trying to keep talking to keep her quiet. She began fussing again at the quiet and I spoke up again. "I'm glad you're not like me, Maya. _So _glad. You'll get to have a normal childhood, with a dad who loves you. Not like I did. I had Smelly Gabe for a while, and he was just awful. I don't know that I ever want you to even know about him. I mean, Mom was the real hero of that story, but that guy will probably give you nightmares. I wonder if he's still at that art museum. Anyway, so there was him- he's gone now, thank gods. And then there's my real dad, Poseidon, who I didn't even know about until I was twelve, and he can't really be much of a dad because of ancient laws and stupid stuff like that. I mean, he's about as fond of rules as I am-the fact that I was even born to begin with is proof of that, but there's still a pretty big limit on what he's able to do, so I've usually been on my own. But Paul, your daddy, he's awesome. He really is. I mean, he just came in and swept mom off her feet and is the best guy for her. And he learned about me and was cool with it, and he's just awesome. You get to have him right from the start, Maya. You're really lucky.

"And you'll never have to deal with any of the other stuff I did either. The quests, and the fighting, and the wars. And I'm so happy you don't. Like, seriously. You won't ever have to be as scared as I've been, or deal with crazy Titan lords or Earth mothers and Giants who want to take over the world and ruin it, or anything else like that. It won't be your job. I mean I hope none of us have to deal with anything else like that again, but especially not you. It's not even a possibility for you and that's a huge relief. Don't ever take being normal for granted, okay, Buggie? You don't know how good you have it.

"Honestly, I probably don't either. I mean, I've been through some bad stuff, but at least I have Mom. She's always been the best lady ever. And even when Smelly Gabe was relevant, a lot of my friends still had it so much worse. Like Annabeth-you know her. You like her a lot, actually. Anyway, Annabeth had it really rough when she was little. Her dad made some mistakes and it didn't end too well for her. Things are better now, but I don't think they'll ever be one hundred percent. And that stinks too, cause she is such an amazing person. Really, Buggie, I'm gonna marry her someday, that's how awesome she is. And there are so many demigods like that, with bad home lives. I mean, basically everyone I know. Annabeth's isn't even the worst, all things considered, I'm just biased."

By now, Maya was totally calm, happy as long as I kept talking and, tired of walking around in circles with her, I risked sitting down on the couch. She didn't mind, as I kept a constant stream of conversation going.

"Anyway, you'll never have to worry about anything. I'm gonna make sure of it. And the stuff you do have to worry about, like, I dunno, boys someday or something, normal stuff like that, I'm going to take care of it for you. Actually, the boy thing may be a serious issue. Like, you'll probably hate me when you're fifteen or so because I'm gonna be hard on them. Paul too. Between your daddy and me, any boy who wants to date you is gonna have a heck of a time, let me tell you. I kind of feel bad for him. But then I don't because you're my baby sister and you seriously deserve the best. I'm gonna make sure of it." I paused, running those last few sentences through my mind. I sighed. "You know, I can see why Annabeth makes fun of me for how I act with you. She says I'm wrapped around your finger. She's probably right-she always is. And you know what? I don't even care. Like, I'm fine with that. She'll always come first to me, Buggie, but you're a close second. Like, _really _close. Mom too."

Maya was still awake, but her movements had stilled and she seemed less focused than she had before, and I let myself hope, just a tiny bit, that she might actually go to sleep. "I can't wait until you're older," I told her gently, "I'll be in California for a while after this year, but I'll come home and see you, I promise. Mom wouldn't let me stay away forever anyway. Especially not after this year. Honestly, I don't know that I want to be so far away either, but it's worth it. I mean, if I can get four years of not having to worry about monsters or quests, or anything like that; of just being with Annabeth and going to school like a normal guy for once… well, it's _so_ worth it. I'll miss you like crazy though.

"But once I graduate and we move back here for good, you'll be about five, I guess, and that'll be awesome. We can do all that stuff I talked about earlier. You'll probably be starting school around then too, I guess. You'll have a better experience with that than I did, I promise you that. Plus, your dad's a teacher. You'll probably be top of your class, like Annabeth is. I'll never understand how she does it. She's got ADHD and dyslexia just like I do, but you'd never know it most of the time. She's so smart. I have met her mom though, so I guess I should expect nothing less."

The baby's eyes were closing now, and I grinned, feeling insanely accomplished, but didn't dare stop talking yet. "There you go, go to sleep. That will make Mommy happy. She said I slept really well when I was a baby; so I've got you beat there, Buggie. She said it was a good thing too, since she was completely on her own, back then. Apparently the only time I really kept her up at night was when it stormed outside. I didn't like the rain, which is kinda funny actually, since Zeus is in charge of thunderstorms and we've never been very fond of each other, even after I helped save Olympus for him. Gods are unfair like that. Poseidon's pretty awesome, though, I'm not gonna lie. Definitely the coolest Olympian, and he did come to one of my birthday parties once, so I can't say he's totally useless as a dad either.

"I still wish I had a normal dad growing up though. It would have made things a lot easier, I think. Mom was always great, but I think sometimes you just need a dad too. I'm kind of jealous that you have that, even though I'm really happy you do. You probably won't think so someday, when you're a teenager and Paul says something you don't like. At least, supposedly that's what it'll be like. I never really got the chance to be a rebellious teen, and you're a girl so it'll probably be different. But anyway, when that day comes, I'm gonna make sure you know he loves you and is only doing whatever he's doing because it's the best thing for you. And trust me, kid, I am not above holding my lack of a dad over your head someday," I said with a grin. "Seriously though, your dad's great. He's the best dad I've ever had, that's for sure. He really loves you. Mom too.

"And so do I. You're the best baby sister ever, Maya, and I'm gonna be here to watch you grow up. I promise, demigod or not. And besides, it would be incredibly lame if I died now, after everything I've been through and survived. I seriously better get a pass from the gods for a while. I'm gonna be a good big brother to you and I have to be here to do that. They're just gonna have to deal with it."

I'm not sure exactly what happened after that, because the next thing I knew, early morning sunlight was streaming in through the window and I could hear my mom and Paul puttering around in the kitchen. A blanket had been placed over me, replacing Maya on my chest, and I figured I must have fallen asleep holding her at some point and one of my parents had taken her from me when they woke up without my noticing. I hoped that meant they'd both been able to get some sleep.

It wasn't until I had sat up and was pushing the blanket off of me that I realized that I had too, and it had been the first truly dreamless sleep I'd had since coming home.

* * *

**Okay, so let me explain what happened here. I wrote most of Percy's dialogue at about 1am, and I was really tired, but wanted to make some progress with the update, so the result was the slightly rambling, rather unorganized conversation that he had with the baby, but it actually really worked out and I decided not to edit it much because Percy is, during this, sleep deprived himself and is trying to just keep talking to soothe Maya, and I think it would turn out like that. So, yeah. :)**

**Thanks for reading!**


	17. Under the Sea

**Hey everyone!**

**So, I got a request or two _for_ some more chapters set after Maya finds out about Percy being a demigod, and I do actually have a few ideas along those lines, I just haven't gotten to ****them yet. This, however, is one of those chapters. It turned out quite a bit differently than I'd intended, but I couldn't bring myself to change it. Hopefully you enjoy it. And there's more where this came from. :)**

* * *

_**Maya is 13.**_

_**Percy is 30.**_

* * *

"So, if demigods use cell phones, it attracts monsters?" Maya asked from the passenger seat.

I nodded. "Most technology, really. It's like a homing beacon for them. Leads them right to us." It had been about two days since I'd told Maya I was a half-blood, and in that time she had been asking questions non-stop, which maybe should have gotten annoying by now, but I was honestly kind of enjoying it. I'd been waiting to be able to talk freely to her about all of it for years.

She was so excited, I'd figured I'd take her out and show her some of the perks that came with being the son of the sea god. Which was where we were going now.

"So," she asked slowly, "Why do you have a cell phone then? Isn't that kind of stupid?"

"It would be," I answered, "Except the Hephaestus campers, who are really good at building and designing, and a few of Annabeth's siblings figured out how to monster-proof cell phones so we can use them."

She raised her eyebrows a bit, looking impressed. "How does that work?"

"Honestly, I have no clue," I said and Maya laughed, "Leo-I told you about him-he told me the phone itself is reinforced with Celestial Bronze-remember what I said about that?" She nodded. "I guess the inside is lined with it or something, which is why it's heavier than normal, but it works the same as a normal phone, except the signal apparently bounces around or something so the monsters can't follow it. I don't know, but he said it works and I trust him. I've had it for years now and I haven't been attacked any more than normal, so I guess he was right."

"But monsters do still find you?"

"Yeah, sometimes. It's not as bad as it was when I was younger. During the wars, it was hard to go ten minutes without an attack, but they do still find us occasionally. Its just part of being a half-blood."

"How do they find you?"

"Our scent."

She looked at me, eyes narrowed. "Your _what_?"

"Scent," I repeated, "All demigods have one. The more powerful the godly parent, the stronger the scent is, so it's always been a bit worse for me since Poseidon is one of the Big Three. It's kind of inconvenient, but I'm a pretty good fighter, so it's usually okay."

Maya looked concerned. "Is Annabeth?"

"A good fighter?" She nodded. "Heck, yeah. She's terrifying."

"Is she better then you?"

I tilted my head to the side in a contemplative gesture, eyes on the road. "It depends," I answered, "With a knife, she's definitely better then me, yeah. I'm awful with one and she prefers them. But with a sword, I can almost always beat her."

"_Almost_ always?" Maya asked with a grin.

I smirked. "Yes, _almost always._ Her mom's the goddess of battle strategy and she knows me too well for me to be able to really surprise her anymore, so I'm technically better with a sword, but she's better at outsmarting me."

"What about other people?"

"Other people don't really stand a chance. It's pretty rare for someone to actually pose much of a challenge in a fight at this point." Maya looked dubious. "I'm serious. Modesty aside, I'm actually a very good swordsman."

"Sure," she said in passing. "So, were you guys, like, that famous couple at camp that everyone wanted to be?" Maya asked, sounding very much then like the young teenage girl she was.

"Not if they were smart. Things weren't exactly easy for us. All the quests sound nice in theory, but it's way different actually being the one going on them. They're really stressful and terrifying, and I honestly wouldn't wish them on anyone. I mean, being with Annabeth all the time was great and I think they're probably part of the reason why we learned to trust each other so much and work together so well, but all the other stuff… Well, it sucked, really."

"Do you get hurt a lot?" Maya asked, sounding timid, "Like, badly?"

I shrugged. "Sometimes," I said honestly, "But not really bad in a long time. Usually it's just a few cuts here and there, which heal quickly if I eat godly food or pour water on them. Back then it was worse. I would have died a long time ago if not for Annabeth. Before you were even born."

"Wow," she murmured quietly.

"I never said it was great being a demigod. It has its perks, sure, but they come at a high price."

"But," she said haltingly, "It's better now, right? You're safer?"

I gave her a small smile. "Yeah. It's a lot better now. Don't worry, Buggie. I'm not going anywhere."

"Good," she said, and then, after a moment, spoke up again, her voice stronger, "Are we there yet?" She looked around, but there wasn't much around to see.

"Just about."

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?"

"Nope. You'll see."

Maya sighed dramatically but didn't press the issue. "So how come you have powers and Annabeth doesn't?"

"Not all half-bloods do. Most don't. Not the kind you're thinking. But even if they don't have actual powers, they always have some sort of skill, like a sort of gift from their parent. Like Annabeth, she doesn't have powers like I do, but she's an excellent strategist and she's the smartest person I know. And that fits, given who her mom is. Ares, the war god, his kids are usually great fighters, even though they're some of the meanest people I know. Hephaestus' kids are great builders and mechanics. Apollo's are really good musicians and great archers. So who your godly parent is kind of determines what your skills are. Poseidon's god of the sea, so I can control water." I shrugged.

"So the kids of powerful gods get cooler powers?" Maya asked.

"Not necessarily. I mean, usually, yeah, it tends to work that way, but I told you about Piper and Leo. They have strong powers and they aren't Big Three children. I guess it depends more on who the Fates decide will need the advantage. Demigods of powerful gods have stronger scents, which means they have more trouble with monsters, so they can use the extra help, so they usually get it. "

"Or they lead armies into battle and need the advantage to save the world from destruction," Maya said wryly.

"Well," I said, "Yeah, but most half-bloods don't have to do that."

I turned off the farm road that, if I continued on, would leave us to Half-Blood Hill. After a minute, the dirt road turned to sand and Maya spoke up again. "Are we going to the beach?" she asked curiously, looking around.

"Yup," I said simply, parking the car at the road's end and getting out, removing my shoes and leaving them beside it. Maya followed suit.

"But we don't have bathing suits. And why did we drive all the way out to the middle of nowhere?" she asked, following me toward the water despite her protests, "There are closer beaches, aren't there?"

"Sure there are," I explained calmly, "But other people go to them. And we're in the middle of nowhere because Camp Half-Blood is about a mile that way," I pointed to my right. "It's sort of the point."

Maya's jaw had dropped open a little at my words and she stared off in the direction I'd indicated. "B-but I can't go there."

"I know," I said simply.

"So, then why are we here?"

"Because this beach is always deserted."

"Why does that matter?" I would have felt bad if her confusion wasn't so adorable.

"Because people tend to get concerned when they see other people go underwater in the ocean and not come back up again."

Maya was looking between the Long Island Sound and me now. "You mean…?"

I grinned, "Ever seen the bottom of the ocean before?"

Her jaw dropped open again and then quickly turned into a smile. "No way."

"Yes, way," I replied, "If you want to."

"Yes, I want to, oh my gosh!" she said excitedly, and then came up slightly short, "But… I can't breathe underwater."

"I know. I have my ways."

"Okay," she replied, still looking at the Sound. She still sounded a bit worried, but her desire to do it seemed stronger. We were nearly at the water's edge now. Just outside of the waves' reach, she stopped. "Show me something first."

"Like what?" I asked.

"I don't know, just," she gestured to the sea, "Do something. With the water." I studied her for a second before reaching my arm out, palm up, toward the Sound and, with half a smirk, created a wall of water fifteen feet high. Maya's eyes widened. She glanced back at me momentarily and then looked quickly back at the water again. "Whoa," she breathed.

Still smiling, I brought my hand slowly down again and the wall receded with it. "Want to go in?" I asked. She immediately looked nervous again. "We don't have to, Maya." I told her, "It's up to you."

"No." She shook her head and looked at me. "I do. I…" She glanced down. "I don't have a bathing suit," she said, switching topics.

"If I do it right, you won't need one," I assured her.

"You mean I won't get wet?" I shook my head. "Oh. Okay."

And then, as if to test that theory, she stepped forward onto the wet sand. _Don't touch her,_ I told the ocean, _Come close but divert around. _The water, of course, obeyed my wishes and though it looked as it the next wave washed right over Maya's ankles, when she lifted her foot out, it, as well as the bottoms of her jeans, was perfectly dry. She looked kind of awed and when I moved forward, she followed easily.

I stopped when the water was about chest high. "Want to go under?" I asked.

Maya didn't answer at first and then finally queried, "You've done this before, right? Taken someone underwater?"

"Lots of times. It was the only way Annabeth and I could be alone our last few years at camp."

"Okay, TMI," she said in mock disgust before looking concerned again, "I'm just…" She trailed off.

"Trust me, Buggie," I told her, "I wouldn't do it if I didn't know for sure you'd be okay."

She nodded a few times, blinked, and then nodded again more convincingly. "Okay," she said.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yeah."

"Hold your breath and go under." She took a deep breath and obediently dropped below the surface. I went under too and a few seconds later, had created an air bubble around us. "Okay. You can breathe now."

Hesitantly, still perfectly dry, Maya took a small breath and opened her eyes. Her jaw fell open in wonder almost instantly and she took in her new surroundings in awe. "Whoa," she breathed.

Smirking, I leaned casually back against the wall of our bubble. "Cool, huh?"

We weren't very deep at all, maybe a foot below the surface, but she didn't seem to mind. The occasional fish swam by, seeming immensely fascinated with our arrival. "This is awesome!"

"Want to go deeper?" I asked.

"Yes!" Maya replied in a tone that seemed to indicate that that was obvious. Still smiling, I willed us deeper and our bubble bounced along easily with the currents. She was mesmerized.

We stayed below the surface for over two hours, various sea creatures swimming above and scuttling by below, warm and cold currents mixing together around us. Maya never seemed to grow bored and I was more than happy to stay as long as she wanted to. I did, however, start willing us back toward shallower water when the sunlight began waning. "Where are we going?" Maya asked, taking notice.

"It'll be dark soon," I told her, "And I promised Mom I'd have you home before eight. School tomorrow."

She opened her mouth as if about to protest, but then sighed resignedly. "Okay."

I smirked. "We've been down here a while, Buggie."

"I know," she said, and added, "Don't call me that," halfheartedly. I smiled wider and, focusing again on keeping Maya dry, willed us to break the surface of the water, the bubble popping as we did so. "That was amazing," she said as we waded to shore, helped along by the ocean at my command, "Can we do it again sometime?"

I grinned, basking again in how happy I was to finally be able to share all of this with her. "Sure."

* * *

**Thank you for reading and have a wonderful night!  
**


	18. Conversation

**Hey guys,**

**Sorry for the long wait but I finished my first week of college today, and things have been really busy and will continue to be. That being said, I don't know how frequently I will be able to update this or any of my other stories. I will still continue them and I will still try for updates every week or two, but I honestly have no idea what kind of work load I'm looking at, so it could be way longer. I appreciate your patience. :)**

**I started this chapter, like, 2 weeks ago and really hated how it was turning out. I actually ended up completely rewriting it tonight and I think it flows a litte nicer now. It doesn't really include much Percy/Maya, but it is centered around it and I've been getting requests for a chapter like this since the very beginning, so I hope you enjoy it. :)**

* * *

_**Percy is 38.**_

_**Maya is 21.**_

* * *

"Hey, Brandon," I said, coming up alongside the couch in the living room where Brandon, the Roman legacy, sat with my sister, "Want to take a walk with me to the store? We need bread for dinner." I kept my tone light but was careful to keep the inflection there as well, so as not to allow much room for refusal. I felt Maya's eyes land on me, her expression taking on a look of both worry and warning. I didn't look away from Brandon..

"Um," the legacy answered, looking unsure. He glanced away from me and to Maya, as if for guidance, though he clearly saw no way out from the look on her face and, turning back to me, said, "Sure, I guess." He moved to stand.

"Don't worry, Buggie," I said with a smirk to my sister, looking at her for the first time, "We won't be gone long." When I moved to follow Brandon out of the living room, Maya, after ensuring he could not see, mouthed, _Don't scare him away_, to me, her expression turning pleading. I smirked innocently in reply, flattered, honestly, that she thought me powerful enough to determine the future of her relationship. Right before I left the room, I caught Paul turning away quickly to hide his own smile.

Never, in a million years, would I have ever guessed that my sister would date a legacy. Brandon was the son of two Roman demigods and, while I could personally attest that he was a nice enough guy and more than a half-decent fighter, I had certainly been surprised to find out about his relationship with my sister. Especially since the fact that they'd even met to begin with was my fault.

Brandon first came into the picture a year before, when, during a vacation in California to visit Annabeth's family on which Maya had tagged along, he and his friend, also a Roman legacy, accidentally led a threesome of monsters too close to the beach we were visiting and Annabeth and I had ended up helping take care of them while Maya minded the kids. They'd stuck around for a few minutes to thank us afterward before departing back to Camp Jupiter and we'd gone back to our vacation. I didn't know, at the time, that Brandon and Maya had hit it off, nor did I know that, throughout the year that followed, the two had kept in touch and spent a good part of it dancing around their feelings for each other.

That was how Maya told it anyway, when, one afternoon spent with my whole family at our parents', she explained that they had finally gotten together a week earlier and that he would be coming for dinner a few days later. And I was surprised, of course, because I hadn't really given the guy, who, being just a few months older than Maya, hadn't been at Camp Jupiter during Annabeth's and my time in New Rome, much thought since that day on the beach. Not to mention the way she lit up just talking about him in a way I'd never seen before, even with the handful of relationships she'd had since her junior year of high school, though none of those had lasted more than a month or two. This time, obviously, was different, and I thought it might be time for me to have a chat with him.

"So, where are we going?" Brandon asked as we stepped out onto the sidewalk outside my parents' apartment building.

"To Fairway," I answered, pointing to our right and heading in that direction, "It's not too far. About two blocks." Brandon nodded, keeping pace beside me.

The walk to the grocery store consisted mainly of small talk. I asked about Camp Jupiter. He asked about the kids, though whether he actually cared or was just trying to fill the silence, I wasn't sure. He was in college, his final year, in New Rome, studying marketing, He planned to move to New York to get a job after he graduated. His father was a son of Apollo and his mother a daughter of Venus. He had a brother, three years younger, who had just started his first semester studying music.

The chat continued throughout our short time in the store itself, during which we bought the bread my mom had requested, and tapered off just as we entered the street again.

"So," Brandon spoke up after a short silence, "Is this the 'If you hurt my sister, I'll hurt you' part of the conversation?" he asked, looking the slightest bit nervous.

I gave a laugh. "Not specifically, but that probably does go without saying."

"I have no doubt." He'd seen me fight last summer and had definitely heard all the stories about my teenage years and all the chaos that surrounded them. Normally, the wariness and amazement people showed toward me was pretty annoying, but, in this case, to be found intimidating was, I'm not going to lie, the slightest bit gratifying.

"I just want to talk to you a little," I said easily.

Brandon nodded only a little stiffly. "Okay."

"So," I began, "Maya. How do you feel about her?"

"I…" Brandon glanced at me quickly before looking forward again, a bit of color flooding his cheeks, "I like her," he answered, "Like, a _lot_."

I nodded. "And," I said, cringing inwardly at the sheer awkwardness of the next question, "What are your intentions?"

Brandon blinked. "Intentions?"

"Yeah. I mean, I'm hoping that if you care about her like you say you do, you aren't planning to lead her on and waste her time only to dump her and break her heart in a month…?"

"Oh," Brandon replied as we stopped to wait at a crosswalk, "No. No, definitely not, I…" He trailed off and paused a moment, as if considering his next words, "Honestly-and I know it's crazy since we've only technically been together a week and a half, but I honestly think I could marry her someday, I really do." Then, he seemed to remember who he was talking to and stated backpedalling. "I mean, not, like, immediately. Probably not for a few years, at least, cause we're both still really young, I know, and I would never rush into something like that, and obviously it's up to Maya too, but I'd like to think she feels the same way and-"

I, meanwhile, was laughing. "Relax," I said with a grin, cutting him off mid-sentence, "It's fine. That's actually great to hear. I'm looking out for my little sister that's all."

"Yeah," he said, looking sheepish, "Sorry." I smiled. "And also, he added, "If you could not tell her I said that…"

I grinned. "Don't worry. You're secret's safe with me."

He managed a small laugh. "Thanks."

"Here's the gist," I told him as we stopped at the crosswalk half a block from my parents' building, "Maya's my baby sister and she's one of the most important people in my life. You respect her, you pay for her meals, you compliment her, you protect her, and," I glanced sideways at him here with raised eyebrows, "You keep your hands to yourself please, especially when I'm around."

"Absolutely," Brandon replied immediately and earnestly.

I nodded, slowing to a stop outside the entrance to the apartment building. "I've always been really glad that she wasn't born with godly blood. After everything I had to go through during the wars, it was comforting to know she'd never have to experience any of that. Things are different now, but I don't have to tell you that things can get complicated in our line of work." I held his gaze.

"I'll protect her, Percy. You have my word."

"Good," I said, clapping him on the shoulder, "Let's get inside. My mom's waiting for this," I gestured to the grocery bag in my hand and then led the way inside.

"And just so you know," I told him outside the unlocked apartment door, careful to keep my voice quiet enough so as not to be overheard inside, "I was twenty-two when I married Annabeth. I knew her for ten years before that, but I don't have much ground to stand on when it comes to not marrying young." I finished speaking with a smirk and, without waiting for a response from him, pushed open the door and stepped inside, leaving Brandon to follow.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**


	19. Question

**Hello!**

**So I know it's literally been forever and a day since I've updated this story, but I got a (rather rude) review today and wanted to set the record straight really quick. I am currently in my first semester of college, which is no small transition for those of you who don't know, and it is exceptionally time consuming, especially since I want to go to medical school someday and am in a difficult major that requires good grades. That being said, I have been trying to keep up with FF as best I can with all my work and responsibilities. As most of you probably know, I literally just posted the second part to a new story a few days ago. I know you all like my writing and I don't want to stop writing stories completely because of it. I know it's aggravating when authors start fanfics and don't finish them. It bothers me as much as it bothers you, I promise. I also promise that I am not the type of author who will ever do that. No matter how long it takes, I will finish what I started. That being said, as this story does not have a specific chapter-to-chapter plot or any specific schedule for updates, I let it go a little while before posting again because I don't want to ever post anything that is less than quality. I'm sorry if that was disappointing, but I have a life outside of the internet, and I intend to put it first. I also know this is a popular story and, instead of just outright ending it, decided to keep with it and just not update as frequently. I have no problem with reviews asking for an update, but to be rude about it is not okay. Be respectful, people. You're not the one writing the story, so don't make demands of the people who are. Thank you, that is all. End of rant.**

**ANYWAY, this is just a quick little fic that I whipped up because I did realize just how long it's been since I've updated this (these last few months have flown by, you have no idea) and I felt bad. I started a different chapter a while ago, couldn't make it work, got busy, and sort of forgot about it. For that, I'm sorry and hope you like this one instead, despite it's shortness and the incredibly long wait. I seriously do appreciate your patience and for sticking with this story this long!**

**I'm not entirely sure what to think of this chapter, but I just kind of imagine Maya always coming to Percy with random questions about the gods, and I think this scene could happen. I intended it to be a bit funnier than it turned out, but oh well.  
**

**If you are still reading this absurdly long AN, I applaud your patience. Hope you enjoy! :)**

* * *

_**Percy is 31.  
**_

_**Maya is 14.**_

* * *

I sighed, staring down at the page before me as I scrawled my signature across the bottom of yet another field report. I loved my job, I truly did, but I could do without the paperwork. I moved it to the "finished" pile and picked up the next, which detailed the events of the rescue of a sea turtle that had gotten caught in a fishing net too close to shore the day before. After making sure everything was properly filled out, I was about to sign off on the report when I heard the front door of our apartment open.

"Annabeth?" I called, leaning back and looking at my watch. Noah had only gotten out of school a few minutes ago. Surely she couldn't be home with him already. "Hun?" I called again, on my feet now and approaching the door of our small office, Riptide already in my hand, not drawn yet, but about to be.

Normally I wouldn't have been so nervous, but only a small number of people had keys to the apartment and last week a dracaena had somehow gotten in – a mystery Annabeth and I had yet to figure out and were definitely _not _okay with. My daughter was napping in the next room; I wasn't taking any chances.

I turned the corner to find my sister standing in my living room and grinning at me. I let out my breath in a rush and relaxed my sword arm. "Geez, Maya, are you trying to get yourself killed?" I demanded, slipping the pen-sword back in my pocket.

My sister raised a defiant eyebrow, "That's Celestial Bronze," she said, unimpressed, "It wouldn't hurt me."

I shook my head. "Not the point. What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you. I took the subway over after school let out."

"By yourself?"

Maya rolled her eyes only half seriously, "Yes, _by myself_. I'm fourteen. I think I can handle going a few subway stops on my own. When you were fourteen, you travelled across the _country_ by yourself."

"I wasn't by myself," I countered, but didn't press the issue beyond that. "Does Mom know you're here?"

"Sort of?" she offered.

I gave her a look. "Well, make it a definitely," I told her, "Mom spent more than enough time worrying about one of her kids not showing up when he was supposed to. Don't you do that to her too."

Maya sighed. "Fine, you're right. But I only did it cause I haven't seen you in _forever_. It's been like three weeks!"

I studied her for a moment and then sighed. "I'm sorry. It's been busy."

"I know," answered Maya, "That's why I came to you."

I stared at her for a second and then, failing at keeping from smiling, shook my head. Sometimes my sister reminded me a little too much of myself. "Fair enough."

"Also, I wanted to ask you something."

"Okay, well text Mom first, and then you can ask me." Maya, complying, pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket and did just that. "Okay," she said and put it back a few seconds later.

"Did you tell her?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," I said, moving to the couch and planting myself on it, "What do you want to know?"

"Oh, yeah," my sister said, "So, today in class, my history teacher kind of got off topic talking about ancient cultures and started talking about Greece." I nodded, listening. She continued, "Most of it was stuff I already knew because, you know," she gestured vaguely in my direction, "But he said one thing about Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, and Hera being related. And, I mean I already knew Zeus, Hades, and your dad were, but _Hera_?" she asked, emphasizing the name of the queen of the gods, "She's married to Zeus, isn't she?"

"Yeah," I answered.

"But they're _siblings_," she protested, "Is that true?"

"Yeah," I said again.

"That's disgusting!"

I was tempted to say yeah a third time because I really and truly did agree, but I couldn't get away with verbally judging the Olympians as easily as my mortal sister could. Instead, I said, "I mean, yeah, but it's different with gods. Like, the same rules don't really apply."

"Still," she said, eyeing me, "That's like you marrying me."

"No," I said quickly, and then said, "Well, yeah, I guess it technically is, but it's not. Like I said, it's different. They probably don't have DNA the same way we do, like that."

"But Poseidon's your dad, which means half your DNA is his, which means they must."

I blinked, wondering belatedly when Maya had gotten so smart. Honestly, I'd never given any of this much thought because, frankly, it _was_ disturbing. "Okay… I guess that's true. But it's still different with them."

"How?"

"I don't know, it just is. Annabeth probably has a better answer, ask her. Honestly I'm not sure I really want one."

"You mean you never thought about it? You don't think it's… weird and gross?"

"No, I guess I do, I just kind of chose not to think about it. There are a lot of things that are easier that way when you're like me." I looked at her for another moment. "Did you really come here just to ask me that?"

"No. I was really disturbed and wanted to know if my teacher was right or not, but I wanted to come anyway."

"And does my answer make you any less disturbed?" I asked, half joking.

"No, and I kind of wish you weren't a demigod so I could go through history class like everyone else, bored out of my mind and not believing in any of the stuff my teacher says."

I laughed. "You and me both, Buggie."

* * *

**Thank you for reading! I will try to be quicker with my updates in the future!**


	20. Phone Call

**Hey guys! A pretty quick update for you. :)**

* * *

_**Percy is 19.  
**_

_**Maya is 2.**_

* * *

"So how are your classes going?" my mom asked, "Are you really busy?"

"They're alright," I answered into the phone I held to my ear, "The workload hasn't been that bad this semester. Annabeth's buried, but she's taking, like, three more classes than I am."

"She's Annabeth," my mom said by way of explanation.

"Exactly," I laughed, leaning back in the desk chair in my dorm room in New Rome. I'd come back from my marine science class to an empty room-my roommate wasn't back yet-and thought I'd test out the cell phone Leo had given me the day before, a prototype developed by the Hephaestus and Athena cabins which was supposedly monster-proof. Had it been anyone else, I wouldn't have believed a word of it, but I'd seen what Leo alone was capable of and figured I could trust him, if only because Annabeth said it sounded legit.

I'd been on the phone for a few uneventful minutes. So far, so good.

"How's she doing?" my mom asked. We'd just gotten back to New Rome about a week ago, having been off for a week for Spring Break. It had been great to get home, but it made being back that much harder.

"She's good," I answered, "She's already prepping for finals, even with almost two months to go, but that's pretty normal for her."

My mom hummed in response. "Don't let her work too hard."

I smiled. "I don't. We're going out tonight, even if I have to bodily drag her away."

"Glad to hear it," my mom replied, sounding amused. "That poor girl would work herself into the ground if you let her."

"Don't I know it. How's everyone there?"

"We're good. It's surprisingly quiet around here when you're at school," she said wryly. I smiled. "Maya misses you. She asks about you every day. She's old enough now to really notice you're gone."

"Well now I feel bad," I said, though I was grinning, "I miss her too."

"She adores you, Perce. It genuinely warms my heart."

"Yeah," I said, "Well. That goes both ways. Maya's hard not to love."

"She's not the only one," my mom replied, "We love you too, Percy."

I grinned, "After all the trouble I caused?"

My mom laughed. "Especially then-" She broke off then, and I could hear her talking to someone who was undoubtedly my sister. I heard my name said a few times and my mom's response to a question I missed, "Yeah, he's on the phone. Do you want to say hi?" Maya's excited squeal in reply was impossible to miss. Then my mom was back on the phone, speaking to me. "Maya heard me say your name. She wants to talk to you."

"Okay, yeah," I said, smiling, "Put her on."

There was a pause while the phone was handed off and then I could hear my mom's muffled voice speaking to my sister, "Like that. Talk in to the phone. It's Percy. Say hi."

"Per-cee?" my baby sister said. Her voice sounded loud and almost muffled, like she was holding the phone too close to her mouth. I wasn't sure if she was speaking into the phone or still to my mom. I replied anyway.

"Hi, Maya!" I said.

There was a short pause, and then, "Per-cee!"

"Hey!" I laughed.

"Per-cee," Maya chanted again.

"Yup, it's me, Buggie."

"Hi!"

I laughed again. "Hi. What are you doing?"

"Pwayin'."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Where ahre you?"

"I'm at school, Buggie. In California."

"Cal-forn-a?"

"That's right."

"Coming home soon?" I turned toward the sound of the door opening to see Dylan, legacy of Apollo and my roommate, walk in and close it behind him. I nodded in acknowledgement.

"Pretty soon," I told Maya, "In two months." As I said it, the thought crossed my mind to make a trip before that, if only for the sole purpose of seeing my baby sister, but I knew it would probably only make it harder on the little girl for me to show up for a day or two and leave again.

"Two montfs?"

"Yup. Then I'll be there for the _whole_ summer. Sound good?"

"Okay. Bye!"

I blinked. "Uh, bye, Buggie! I love you!"

"Lub you too, Per-cee! Bye!"

I laughed, "Bye!"

There was another pause, presumably during which Maya passed the phone back to my mom before surely taking off to play some more. My mom's voice sounded from the phone again a moment later. She was laughing.

"I think you just made her day," she said, "She was just asking about you a few minutes before you called."

"I'm glad I got to talk to her. And you."

"Me too, honey." She paused for have a second, and then said, "I should probably go. Paul is watching Maya later so I can meet with an editor and I want to have this laundry done before he gets home."

"No problem. I have some homework to do before tonight anyway."

"Okay. It was good hearing from you, honey.

"Love you, Mom. Say hi to Paul for me."

"I will. I love too. Give my best to Annabeth."

"I will."

"Okay. Bye, Percy."

"Bye," I said, and hung up. Dylan was at his desk, leaning against it and staring at me. "What?" I asked.

He shook his head and smirked. "You put the rest of us brothers and sons to shame, you know that?"

* * *

**Thanks for reading!  
**


	21. Monster Attack

**Hey guys! Another update for you. I meant to have it up a few days ago, but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to write. Hopefully this will work. It's really long. :)**

**Also, I have a poll going on my profile right now about a story I am thinking about writing sometime, so please, if you don't mind, head over there and let me know what you think!**

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_**Percy is 31.  
**_

_**Maya is 14.**_

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"We only had, like, 40 seconds left in the second half and Emily got the ball to me and I took it and scored right before the game ended," Maya explained as we walked down the sidewalk, on the way back from her soccer practice, "So our team won 4-3."

"It was just a scrimmage, wasn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah," Maya said with a shrug. "But the goalie for the other team, Deanna, she thinks she's better than the rest of us. She acts like she runs the team and I'm really tired of it. I really wish the coach wouldn't let her play as much, but she is good, I guess. Just super cocky and annoying, you know?"

I made a sound of agreement. "I've known a few of those, yeah," I answered, every school bully I'd ever dealt with coming to mind. I was honestly really proud of Maya for putting the girl in her place tonight.

She was one of the few freshmen who had made it onto Goode's JV soccer team this year, and, while I didn't know all that much about soccer, it wasn't hard to see that she was good at it. Normally, Mom or Paul picked her up when her practices ran late, but they were out tonight and, understandably, didn't want Maya walking the New York streets alone at night. Paul had called me and asked if I'd be willing to grab her. Of course I'd agreed. We could have taken the subway, but it was a nice night and a surprisingly warm one for early November. Goode wasn't far from my parents' apartment, and we'd opted to walk.

We'd left about ten minutes ago and Maya had spent the time regaling me with the events of the practice game her team had had that night. It wasn't unusual for her to talk about the events of her day-to-day life when she saw me. At fourteen, she liked talking, and I enjoyed listening. My own experiences in school, while they had gotten slightly better after I reached high school, had never been anything close to what you'd call normal. Frankly, I was glad my sister's time in school was proving to be just that.

Maya nodded at my response. "She deserved it," she summed up. I smirked. She looked at me. "You never played any sports in school, did you?" she asked.

"I was on the swim team my senior year," I offered.

"You were? Isn't that kind of cheating, because…" She trailed off and gestured vaguely toward me, "You know?"

I shrugged. "It probably would have been if I'd used my powers for my benefit. I just swam normally, like everyone else."

"But doesn't the water make you stronger?"

I shrugged. "Not as much as saltwater, but yeah, it does. I was careful. I was only ever as good as the best swimmer on the team," I said slyly, "I even let him beat me sometimes."

Maya, smiling, gave me a look and shook her head. "That's totally cheating."

I shrugged, grinning. "That's what Annabeth said too. Mom was thrilled though, which is why she didn't really press the issue."

Maya nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. You didn't swim before that because of everything that was going on, right? Like, your senior year – that was after all that?"

"Yeah," I said, "And yeah, that's why. I was kind of too busy before that."

Maya nodded, looking thoughtful. "Do you wish you'd joined the team earlier?"

"No," I answered, "I mean, yeah, I had fun swimming for Goode, but I mostly did it for Mom. I could have a lot more fun swimming at camp or somewhere if I really wanted to. But she liked that I was involved in something normal."

"What about basketball?" Maya asked, "You like that, don't you? How come you never played?"

"I did. Just not on a team. I didn't want to."

"Was it because you were dating Annabeth?" Maya asked, "There's a sophomore on my team who's always complaining that she never gets to see her boyfriend during the season because we're always practicing."

"No," I laughed. "I just didn't want to play on the school team. We weren't like that. Annabeth basically lived with us during senior year anyway."

"Why did she wait until twelfth grade to go to Goode, anyway?" Maya asked, but I had stopped listening. Something seemed off about the street we had just turned onto. It was a residential street, with apartment complexes lining the majority of it, so I was expecting it to be less crowded than the main street we'd just turned off of, but it certainly should have been busier than it was. There wasn't a soul in sight. I slowed almost to a stop, scanning the street, my hand drifting toward my pocket where Riptide waited. Maya, noticing my change in behavior, asked, "What's wrong?"

I shushed her, still looking around, my feeling of unease growing. I had a feeling I knew what was causing the local New Yorkers to subconsciously abandon a perfectly good neighborhood street, and I wasn't happy about it.

I just caught the movement in my peripheral vision in time to get my sister out of the way. "Maya, get down!" I yelled, pushing her toward the ground rougher than I'd intended to. I barely had time to draw my sword before a giant claw slammed into me. I flew a few feet through the air, Maya's terrified scream of "PERCY!" sounding behind me, before landing in the middle of the street and rolling to my feet. I held Riptide firm and took in the monster, the cause of the empty street – Mist was powerful stuff. It was a giant scorpion, like the kind Daedalus had imported to camp for capture the flag when I was fifteen. I hadn't seen one since, but I figured this one was recently reformed and had come for revenge. With my luck, that was pretty appropriate.

Maya was still on her knees on the sidewalk where I'd left her. I hoped she wasn't too scraped up, but I couldn't worry about that now. "Get out of here!" I yelled to her as the scorpion swung at me with his tail, which just so happened to be dripping with venom. I dodged, unable to wait to see if Maya listened, and went on the offense, looking for a chink in his armor that I could get to. During that capture the flag game, Annabeth and I had never gotten the chance to actually kill one, on account of the fact that we'd ended up way outnumbered and, in our efforts to get away, had accidentally discovered the entrance to the Labyrinth in Zeus' Fist.

I tried to remember what the plan had been when facing the scorpions last time, but that was over fifteen years ago and Annabeth had been fighting it with me. I almost wished she was now, except that if she was it would have meant our young kinds were here as well. It was bad enough Maya had to be here, but she at least knew the truth.

The scorpion was circling me now. I'd discovered it didn't have great peripheral vision and liked to keep me in front of it, expertly using its tail to keep me where it wanted me. I, obviously, kept trying to get behind it anyway. The noise it was making had started off as sort of an angry clicking, but grew into more of a hiss as it became agitated. I kept trying to catch a glimpse of Maya, but the thing was massive and quick, and I didn't have the chance.

In a lucky swing, I managed to take one of its hind legs off. Unfortunately, I'd been aiming for the tail, which was spewing more poison than ever, and severing the scorpion's extremity only served to make it angrier while still leaving it heavily armed. It swung its tail hard at me. I ducked and rolled underneath, but couldn't avoid the venom dripping off of it. I could feel it burn my skin as it made contact.

Fortunately, in missing me, the scorpion deposited me exactly where I wanted to be – directly behind it. It realized its mistake quickly, but I had already taken advantage of it and, gritting my teeth, got to my feet before it got the chance to swivel around. It swung its tail once more, lower to the ground. I just managed to jump over it and, as I landed, brought my sword down in a wide arc, accomplishing my goal in cleanly severing the tail from its body. The scorpion screamed in agony, still trying to hit me with a tail it no longer had access to and whirled around, this time faster than I could get out of the way. I narrowly avoided a giant claw and backed away to mentally regroup. It was disarmed of its venom, but those claws were still nasty.

The scorpion was favoring the side that was missing its back leg, and I saw an opening. In a classic basketball fake out, I stepped to one side and then quickly spun and headed for the other, making it around to the monster's side in its second of confusion. I launched myself at its abdomen and somehow managed to make it on top of its body. Its shell was hard as steal, but there were chinks running along the top of its back, and I saw my opening. The scorpion was spinning, still searching for me on the ground. I shook my head and army crawled my way toward its head, holding on for dear life. When I finally made it to the top of its armored back, I got to my knees and, with all my might, stabbed Riptide through the space just below its neck, almost decapitating it completely when it jerked violently to the left in shock and pain. It didn't move again, and as the body crumbled to dust, I jumped off the shell and rolled to my feet on the street once more.

"Maya!" I yelled, running to the spot on the sidewalk where I'd left her. She wasn't there. "Maya!" A choked cry sounded from a nearby alleyway between two apartment buildings, and I ran toward it. It was pretty empty except for a few dumpsters and some scattered leaves. I called my sister's name again as I stepped inside and a moment later, her petite body slammed into mine with a surprising amount of strength. She wrapped her arms tightly around me and clearly didn't plan to let go any time soon. I hugged her to me as she cried. She was shaking. "It's okay," I told her, "It's okay, Buggie, I promise."

"Is it gone?" she managed after a few seconds, talking into the fabric of my sweatshirt.

"Yes."

"Is it gonna come back?"

"Not for long time," I promised her. "It's okay now. Gods, I'm sorry, Maya. That thing shouldn't have been anywhere near you. I'm sorry you had to see it." She shook her head against me, whether in acknowledgement or agreement I wasn't sure. I continued to hold her for another minute or two before she started to loosen her grip.

"Are you okay?" she squeaked, pulling away for the first time.

"Yes," I said, "Are you?" I put a hand on each of her arms and backed up a step to examine her. The knees of her jeans had torn when she fell, but the denim seemed it have taken the brunt of the impact. She was a little scraped but there wasn't much blood. I sighed. "I'm sorry I pushed you."

"What?" Maya replied, her voice still weak but sounding a little more like herself. She glanced down at her torn jeans. "Oh. I don't care. It's fine."

She looked at me again, and then at my arms. My sleeves had holes burnt into them from the scorpion's venom. My back, which had taken the brunt of it as I'd rolled, probably looked much worse. My skin was pretty painful at the places where the poison had burnt completely through. Maya lifted a hand to a large patch of burnt fabric on my forearm, her fingers resting an inch above it. I grabbed her hand and held it. "It's nothing. I'm fine, I promise."

She just shook her head silently. I sighed, "Come here," and hugged her again. "I'm okay, alright? Everything's okay."

She nodded. "I know." After a second, I let her go.

I gave her another once over and sighed at her torn knees. "I'll buy you a new pair of jeans," I promised her.

"Seriously, I don't care," she said, "And I don't think Mom will either."

"Oh, she'll care. Just not about the pants." I studied her for another second. "Come on," I said, "Let's get you home. Do you have your bag?"

"No. It's still out on the sidewalk, I think."

She was right. Her backpack was slung haphazardly on the road a few feet from where I'd left Maya. While she retrieved it, I pulled a badly squished square of ambrosia from my pocket and ate part of it. I had to do something about the burns from the venom before they could get worse. What I really wanted was a shower or, even better, a dip in the ocean, but the godly food would have to suffice for now. Immediately, the throbbing along my arms and back subsided to a dull tingle. By now, people were starting to populate the street again and Maya was standing beside me, eyeing me strangely. I held her gaze. "I'm trying to decide how freaked out to be," she supplied.

"It's a lot, I know," I told her sympathetically as I began leading her back down to sidewalk toward my mom and Paul's apartment.

"I mean, I always believed you and, like, I saw Mrs. O'Leary that time and stuff, but…" she shrugged.

"I know," I said.

"Does that happen to you a lot? Being attacked like that?"

"Not as much as it used to," I answered as we stopped at a crosswalk, "But it's not exactly rare. I'm sorry you had to be there."

Maya paused for a second and then said, reasonably, "It was probably bound to happen sometime."

I couldn't argue with that. It was impressive enough that it had not happened before she'd learned the truth. "You're probably right."

She was quiet for a minute or so, long enough for the crosswalk signal to change and for us to cross the street. Then she said quietly, "You're a really good fighter."

I glanced down at her. "Buggie, that's not how I want you to think of me."

"I know," she said quickly, "But its true." She shrugged. "I'm glad it is." She glanced at me and then looked quickly away again. "So is Mom," she added, "I talked to her about it once, after you told me everything. She said that she never minded always having to mend your ripped clothes because it meant you still needed them. That you were alive _to _need them." She stopped then and looked at me again, this time without looking away. "Did she ever see you do that? Like, fight monsters like that?"

"Yeah," I answered, "A few times."

Maya nodded. "Were you scared?"

"When?"

"Before. When that thing attacked you."

I thought about it. "I was scared for you," I decided, "That it would turn on you or that you'd get hurt in the crossfire."

"You weren't scared for yourself?" Her blue eyes were earnest and genuinely wanting to know.

"I don't know. Maybe. I can't really think like that when I'm trying to kill a monster. Fear doesn't help. I guess I'm scared of getting hurt really badly and especially of dying and leaving Annabeth behind with the kids. And of leaving you." I glanced at her.

Maya was quiet for a minute. We were almost to the apartment when she spoke again. "I'm glad it was you."

"What?"

"I'm glad that Great Prophecy was about you. That both of them were."

"You are?" I asked. I wasn't.

Maya nodded. "Yeah. Because if it was about anyone else, they wouldn't have done it right. You don't worry about yourself; you worry about others. You wouldn't have let the world be lost. That's why you had to do it. And I'm glad you did."

I just stared at her, at a loss for what to say. Maybe she was right. I'd never thought about it like that. I was pretty surprised that she had. "Thanks, Maya."

She nodded. "You never answered my question, by the way."

"What question?"

"About Annabeth."

I blinked at her, confused at the abrupt change of subject. "What question about Annabeth?" I remembered no such question.

"Why didn't she go to Goode until her senior year?"

"Oh," I said. "She bounced from school to school. She was in a boarding school around here in ninth grade, I think, and lived in California with her family after that for a little while. She went to Goode our last year so we could be together after everything."

"Awe," said Maya, and just like that, everything seemed fine again.

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**Thanks for reading! And don't forget to check out the poll on my profile! **


	22. Meeting Poseidon

**Hello everyone!**

**So sorry for the wait for this chapter. My fall semester just ended and classes and finals were taking up a lot of my time for a while. Thankfully I have a break for a while now.  
**

**This chapter has been requested basically since the very beginning of this story and I finally managed to put it together for you all. Before you read, though, I want to let you guys know some things.**

**As some of you may know from the poll I've had open on my profile for a while (HINT, HINT), I have been planning a new PJO story and, with the month I have off between semesters, I finally have some time to get started on it. That being said, I am going to be marking this story as complete after this chapter is posted. This is not just because the idea of having so many open stories going at once scares me, but also because Little Sister has been alive for a while now and, while I have enjoyed writing it more than I can say, I have officially reached the point where I am just out of ideas. This is not to say that I will never add to it again. Because of the way this fic is set up with each chapter as an unrelated drabble, I have the luxury of adding things to it whenever I want, even if I close it. So, if I do get any more good ideas that I can't _not_ write, you could see an additional update or two at some point, but I will not be regularly updating it anymore.**

**This is the point where I tell you all how much I truly love you for sticking with this story for so long, for bearing with the long waits at times between updates, and for just generally being wonderful. Your encouragement truly means so much more than you know. Thank you so much to all of you who have reviewed, and for all the favorites and follows this story has received. I am so glad you have all enjoyed it so much because I really did have a blast writing it, and I am SO glad the idea of Percy's baby sister is now canon. I have really fallen in love with it.**

**That all being said, here is the chapter where Maya finally meets Poseidon. I really hope you like it! Enjoy!**

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_**Percy is 31.**_

_**Maya is 14.**_

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Montauk was, hands down, one of my favorite places. I sat in the sand, breathing in the salt air and enjoying the sun on my skin. A few feet to my right, Maya sat with Noah. I watched offhandedly as they built an impressive sandcastle. My mom and Paul had left us a few minutes ago to get lunch together and Annabeth had followed so she could put the baby down for a nap. She had appointed me to assist with the building effort in her wake, but Maya and Noah seemed to have it under control and I was far from the architect she was.

It was late August, just a few weeks before Maya went back to school and Noah started first grade. My mom had organized the weekend here as a last trip before the end of the summer. We still tried to come as often as we could, though I'll admit doing so was not as easy as it had once been before Annabeth and I had kids. Still, it had been a great weekend. We'd arrived on Friday afternoon and were staying through Sunday night.

"Percy," Maya called from her spot in the sand, crafting the topmost tier of the castle, "Can you get us some water? We have to fill up the moat." She smirked, "Since you're not doing anything."

I made a face at her but stood up, crossing the sand to them, "Oh I'll get you some water," I said, scooping up a reasonably large yellow pail from the sand beside them. Noah giggled. Maya looked slightly disappointed, but stuck her tongue out to hide it. She was probably wishing I'd transported the water to them in a more impressive manner, but while the beach was mostly empty, Annabeth and I had been trying to keep the kids away from that aspect of our lives as much as possible until we figured out how we wanted approach the issue with them. I smirked and turned toward the water.

I'd made it maybe ten feet before Noah called, "Daddy, wait!" I turned around to see him running toward me, another pail in hand. "Aunt Maya said to do two buckets 'cause the moat's really dry."

"Alright," I said, "Come on," and taking his hand, I led him with me toward the waves. This was his first time ever building a sandcastle and the six-year old thought it was about the coolest thing ever. When we reached the water, he wasted no time in dipping his bucket under and heading with it back up the beach, struggling slightly under its weight but determined. I stood and watched him go for a second, smiling, before I filled my own pail. I turned and was about to follow after him when a voice sounded behind me.

"He certainly has gotten big," I jumped and spun around to find Poseidon, god of the sea and also my father, standing there in the ankle-deep water, clad in only a green-checkered bathing suit. "He was barely more than a baby the last time I saw him."

"Dad," I said in surprise.

"How are you, son?"

I blinked for a second, wondering how it was that he'd just appeared right there behind me when there were other people on the beach, even if they were a bit of a distance from us. It also crossed my mind that he could potentially be bringing news that I really didn't want to hear, like that I was going to be expected to fight in another war or something, and that thought was certainly unsettling. "I'm, uh, I'm good. I'm really good. What are you doing here?"

Poseidon just smiled genially. "It's nothing bad, I can assure you. I knew your family was here this weekend and I thought it might be a good time to say a quick hello. It's been quite a while."

"Oh," I replied, "Okay." I glanced back at my sister and son. Noah had long since made it back to their spot and Maya was helping him plant a flag on the top of their masterpiece.

"If I'm intruding, I understand," my dad said, "I don't mean to impose on your vacation."

I looked back at him. "What? No, of course not. It's fine. I'm just surprised to see you."

"Yes, sorry about that. I suppose I could maybe give some warning next time."

I managed a laugh. "Don't worry, I'm used to it."

Poseidon grinned. "How's Annabeth?"

I smiled, "She's really good."

"Good, good. Didn't you two have another little one recently?"

"Yeah, Lydia. She just turned eight months. Looks just like her mom."

"That's wonderful," my dad said with a smile.

"Annabeth just put her down for a nap." I looked at him for a second and then sighed. "I'm sorry, Dad. We've been meaning to take her to meet you and Athena…"

Poseidon was still smiling. "It's okay, Percy. You've been busy, I'm sure."

"Uh, yeah," I said, rubbing my neck with my free hand.

"Percy!" Maya shouted at me then, "Come on! What are you doing?"

I glanced at them again and back at Poseidon, who was smirking. "I take it that's your sister."

"Yup," I said, and started walking toward them, beckoning him, "Come say hi."

Poseidon raised his eyebrows in surprise, but complied. "Have you and Annabeth decided to raise Noah as a legacy right away?" he asked after a moment, "I remember you weren't sure."

"Um, not yet," I answered, "We're still weighing our options. Unfortunately, the Greeks don't have a safe place for us to live with him there, so we're thinking it's still probably safer to keep him in the dark for now."

My dad nodded, "That's probably wise. He's still very young."

"That's what we're thinking. Same with the baby when she's older."

"Is Chiron planning to expand the way Camp Jupiter has to allow heroes to live and raise families?"

"I'm not sure. The idea's been brought up more than once though, so I guess we'll see."

We were almost to the kids now and Maya called out before he could respond one way or the other. "Took you long enough—" she said, looking up from the nearly finished product. She broke off when she saw Poseidon and looked between us with wide eyes. Obviously the physical similarity between us was not lost on her. "No way." Noah, paying us little attention, ran over, took the water-filled pail from me, and proceeded to fill their moat the rest of the way. Maya was gaping.

"Maya, this is my dad, Poseidon," I said, "Dad, this Maya."

"Nice to meet you," my dad said to her. Noah, kneeling in the sand admiring the finished sandcastle and looking pleased with himself, looked over at him for a second, waved shyly, and looked back at his work. Poseidon seemed happy to have been noticed by him at all. "That's a very nice sandcastle the two of you made."

Maya, by now, had gotten to her feet. "Oh, thank you," she said shyly, "It was Aunt Annabeth's design."

"Of course," Poseidon replied, amused.

My sister studied him for a moment. "So, you're a god?" she asked meekly after a second, and then, seeming concerned, looked to me, "That's not a rude thing to ask, is it?"

Poseidon simply laughed. "Not at all. Yes, I am the god of the sea. Some other things as well, storms and horses, for instance, but the seas are my priority."

"Wow," said Maya, still looking between us in shock. She blinked and shook her head a little. "Sorry, Percy just looks so much like you."

Poseidon, still smiling, simply said, "I suppose he does, yes. Though he does have some aspects of your mother's as well."

"And he got his water powers from you?" Maya single-mindedly asked.

"He did. Though he mastered them all on his own." He looked at me then with a distinct pride and I suddenly felt embarrassed.

"Wow," Maya said again, "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting… Percy's told me about you, but…"

"He's told me about you as well. Your brother loves you very much, young lady." Maya looked at me and then down, blushing.

"I know," she said quietly.

"You're very lucky," Poseidon continued, his voice tender, "Despite my efforts, Percy did not have the opportunities you have had growing up, or siblings alongside which to do it. He's done many great things, but it's been obvious from the beginning that he would have traded it all in a heartbeat to have the chance for a normal life. Remember that, Maya." I wasn't sure what had brought that on, but I was touched that Poseidon apparently had paid enough attention in my childhood to know I hadn't always been all that thrilled with my situation.

My sister was quiet for a moment, during which she looked at me with an odd expression before looking back at my dad. "I will, sir," she answered finally.

"I'm glad to hear it," Poseidon said with a smile.

She paused a moment. "Um, can I ask…? How did you get here? I mean, you weren't over there when Percy went to get the water."

My dad laughed. "Well," he said, "Let's just say I have my ways, but you're right, I was not there when your brother first left you. Not as you see me now."

Behind us, the cabin door opened to reveal Annabeth. She crossed the sand to us and, very quickly, noticed the extra adult present. Poseidon, following my gaze, looked at her and smiled as she approached. "There's my daughter-in-law," he said jovially.

"Lord Poseidon," Annabeth greeted respectfully when she reached us, "What brings you here?" She looked mildly worried. It had, after all, been years since I'd last seen my dad.

"Nothing of concern," Poseidon answered easily, "I just wanted to see Percy while he was here and check up on my grandson," he looked fondly at Noah, who was now clumsily building a sandcastle of his own a few feet from the original and was paying the rest of us no attention whatsoever. "However, he seems to be otherwise occupied at the moment."

"Oh," responded Annabeth, "I'm sorry. Noah, come-"

"Don't worry about it," Poseidon interrupted her gently, "It would be confusing for him at this age anyway. Perhaps in a few more years he and I can properly meet. Thank you though."

Annabeth nodded and, I noticed, looked the slightest bit relieved. "Um," she said, "Sally actually sent me out here to tell everyone that lunch is ready," she looked back at my dad, "Would you want to join us?"

"Oh, no, no," Poseidon answered quickly, "Thank you, but I wouldn't want to impose on your family vacation."

"You're not imposing, Dad," I said quickly.

"In any case," Poseidon replied, placing a hand on my shoulder, "I should be going anyway. There are important matters that require attending below the sea and Amphitrite will not be happy with me if I am home late again." He looked between Annabeth and me. "It was nice seeing the two of you again. Take good care of my grandchildren." He cast a fond look at Noah and looked then at my sister, who still didn't appear completely over her shock, "It was wonderful meeting you, Maya." She nodded and managed a smile.

"Take care, Percy," my dad said to me, and then, without another word, turned and strode back down the beach and vanished between one blink and the next.

Maya stared at the spot he'd vanished for another moment before looking at me. Annabeth had moved to retrieve our sandy six-year old. "That was your dad?" she asked, sounding awed.

"In the flesh," I answered.

"Wow," she said, and then asked, "Are his visits always like that?"

"Unless something's wrong, yeah. The gods can't really hang out with their kids for long or often."

Maya seemed to consider that for a second and then, looking at Annabeth as we started up the beach toward the cabin, she changed the subject and asked her aunt's opinion on the finished sandcastle, and I wondered if she realized then just how truly lucky she was to have the parents and the life that she did.

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**Thank you so much for reading and be sure to keep an eye out for future PJO stories!**

**-LiveLaughLove728**


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